


The Day

by Jevil_Joss



Category: RWBY, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: F/F, My Hero Academia S3 Spoilers, RWBY/My Hero Academia Crossover, Some dark and disturbing content, Spoilers: Volume 4 (RWBY), mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2020-07-23 13:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20008855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevil_Joss/pseuds/Jevil_Joss
Summary: I finally decided to write this fanfic. It's a crossover. To sum it up, RWBY characters end up in UA due to the Quirk of a Villain.That includes the RWBY villains.





	1. The Villain Reformation Act

Toshinori Yagi, formerly known as All Might, once the most powerful hero in Japan, set the file down. "They're doing what?"

"It says so in the file," Shoto Aizawa, the hero Eraser Head, said with a grimace. 

"I know you're not one for pranks, but tell me this is a joke, Aizawa."

"The Villain Reformation Act is, unfortunately, not a joke."

"I see the reasons behind villain reformation, yes," Midnight said. "But...putting them in UA? To train with students?"

Principal Nezu looked at the paper he held. "Regardless of our opinions, this is what the government says. We do, however, have the ability to choose which villains, so we can find villains we can deal with if they go rogue." He set the file down. "I've already prepared a list." He slid it over to Aizawa. 

Aizawa took the list and read aloud. "The Elementalists. The Hunter. Iron Saw. And...Atrophy?"

"Why, of all the villains to choose, did you pick Atrophy?" All Might gave Nezu a suffering look. 

"Of the sixty villains we talked to, he was the most cooperative," Nezu replied. "He may not be looking for, ahem, 'redemption', but he is certainly willing to do a lot to get out jail."

"Yeah, but..." All Might gave a pained groan. "He's _Atrophy_." 

"His Quirk is troublesome, and the cybernetic enhancements make him quite the threat." Aizawa grinned. "Honestly, I look forward to seeing if our students can take him on."

Atrophy was one of the most dangerous, criminally insane people All Might had met--or at least, he was the most dangerous of those he'd gone to school with. 

He leaned back in his chair, groaning. "Do you know how much hell he's going to give me?"

"Was he that bad?" Nezu asked. 

"I can't imagine anyone bullying you," Midnight stated. 

"He wasn't a bully. He was worse. He was...a friend."

Stunned silence. Sighing, All Might looked at the room. "I visited _All for One_ in jail, but I haven't even thought about going to see Samuel."

"Oh, yeah, he's American, right?" Aizawa checked the list again. 

"And his girlfriend, Lisa." 

"Pro hero Firecracker, right?" Aizawa checked the list again. 

"After their battle, I can't really imagine them continuing dating," Snipe said, putting his chin in his hands. "He backhanded her, right?"

"Through a truck," All Might asserted. "But she got back at him by shouting all his weaknesses at me." He paused. "But the guy's smart. Don't underestimate him."

"How smart?" Aizawa asked. 

"He designed all his bionics. And...he figured out my Quirk. One For All."

"How the hell did he do that?" Midnight asked, frowning. 

All Might grimaced. "Complications."

Blake Belladonna had not been born with a Quirk. She had come to where she was through pure skill. And yet, skill only took you so far. That final step in human evolution, which she, apparently, lacked. Quirkless, orphan of two poor parents, good for nothing. 

Until she'd met Ruby, and her hulking sister, Wan. The creature barely had a mind. She had two giant black gauntlets over her hands, with tubes running to the machinery on her back, to the mask over her mouth. Ruby was blind. They'd had technology that could grant Blake Belladonna what God could not. 

She'd sworn allegiance to them. But first, she'd killed all of those worthless bastards who'd mocked her, called her Quirkless, called her _orphan_ , called her--

"Can you believe this bull shit?" A voice interrupted Blake's thoughts. Weiss Schnee wore a suit of white armor, and was holding a newspaper, with a stupid grin on her stupid face. "The government is pulling something called the 'Villain Reformation Act'."

Ruby looked up. She continued stroking Wan's hair. "Oh?"

Weiss laughed. "They're pulling...get this...dangerous villains into the school...to try and...'reform them'."

Ruby chuckled. "It's almost as if they're inviting us in." She rose, stretched. "How are...our friends doing?"

"That Cinder chick? Great. They're all prepped for the assault."

"And...Father?"

Weiss paused. "Fine. Your father is fine." 

Ruby sat down. "Weiss. You're a terrible liar."

Weiss flinched. Ruby sighed. Wan looked at her. She smiled at Wan, then sighed again, smile fading. 

"Oh, well. Let's get this over with." She looked at Weiss. "Spread the word. We attack Friday."

"I still think we should attack on Saturday, when the kids are home," Blake said. "Less resistance."

"Yeah, but more kids means more fear. And our friends have work better when their enemies are afraid." Ruby chuckled. 

Izuku Midoriya walked up the steps into UA academy. "Deku!" a familiar voice called. He turned as Uraraka ran up the steps to meet him. 

"Oh. Hey, Uraraka. What is it?"

"Did you get the paper this morning?" she asked. "Did you see it?"

"Yeah. The Villain Reformation Act seems more like a desperate move than anything else." Midoriya looked down at his feet in thought. 

"I think it's reckless and stupid," Uraraka said. "We've already had to fight enough villains, and now they're bringing more into the school?"

"Hmm. Apparently, it wasn't supposed to be in the papers. That was an information leak."

"That can't be good," Uraraka replied. "Something this big getting spilled."

"Not that it's a big deal." The two looked up at their homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa, as he exited the school. "The leak happened the day after the decision was made. It honestly doesn't effect anything other than the career of whoever leaked it in the first place."

"That's true," Midoriya replied. "Hey, what are you doing out here, Professor?"

"A big truck full of villains is coming in. You think I get to stay in my sleeping bag while they're coming in?" He sighed. "No. Half the teachers and several pro heroes are coming in to help."

"That's right," a feminine voice called. A motorcycle revved, and a woman in a black jacket jumped off. Her shirt was pink, with heart-shape on the chest. She pulled of her helmet. "Been awhile, 'raser."

Aizawa stiffened. "Comet."

Comet walked up the steps to Aizawa, putting a hand on her hip. "Not that I expected a heartfelt speech, but I expected more than that."

Aizawa sighed. 

_Comet_ , Midoriya thought. _The Emotion Hero? Now I remember. Energy blasts based upon how intense her emotions are. If I remember correctly, she happens to be incredibly temperamental..._

"Hey, I saw you at the Tournament." Comet looked Midoriya up and down. " 'Deku', right?"

"Um, yeah, that's my hero name," Midoriya began. "Izu--"

"Dude, once a hero, always a hero," Comet grinned. "Why I always wear the costume. At least, one of the seven I have."

"You have seven costumes?" Uraraka asked. 

"One for each day of the week," Comet answered with a grin.

"Who else is coming?" Aizawa asked. 

"Kamui Woods." Comet looked at him. "Backdraft and Gang Orca. Death Arms, too. Somehow, they got Crimson Riot on board." 

"Crimson Riot?" Midoriya put his hand on his chin. "Whoa. Crimson Riot is normally reclusive. I didn't think he would come to something like this."

"Me neither," Comet said with a shrug. "But I bet it's got something to do with the Big Boy coming in."

"...Big Boy?" Midoriya frowned. 

"There are already a dozen pro heroes here already; what villain are they bringing to UA that requires that many heroes?" Uraraka asked. 

"Uh..." Comet looked at Aizawa. "I am legally banned from answering that."

"For multiple reasons, Comet." Toshinori Yagi stated as he exited UA. 

"Uh--All Might!"

"Shouldn't you be getting to class?" Toshinori asked them. 

"Oh, uh--"

Toshinori chuckled. "You do realize the dorms are only a few dozen feet away?" 

"Well, uh--"

"Run along now," Toshinori laughed. A rare grin split his face. 

"Exactly what reasons are you referring too?" Comet snapped, face scrunching up. 

"You have a history," Toshinori chuckled. Midoriya and Uraraka ran up the steps. 

Comet grinned, then fist-bumped Toshinori. "You're skinnier than I remember."

"We've only ever met once before," Toshinori replied. 

"Yeah, and I remember you being, like, seven foot twelve, and six inch-round muscles." She laughed. Toshinori grinned at her, then looked solemnly at the road. 

All the students of class 1A gathered in the sports field. Aizawa walked up to the group and pulled out a microphone. "Alright then. Let's go down what, I'm sure, everyone's already heard. The Villain Reformation Act is a real thing that is going on."

Excited cries ensued as everyone started talking at once. 

"QUIET!" Aizawa cleared his throat. "Now. On to the specifics. As heroes, you will probably face villains you've heard about. Starting tomorrow, we will pick a team of four students and drop them in a fake city with a specifically chosen villain or team of villains. Their will be teachers on the field, though they will be acting as civilians. The job is to rescue civilians around the area of the attacking villain, and gather information about the villain. Feel free to ask the other teachers for 'eyewitness reports'. Then, you have a choice to make: Either defeat the villain, or, if you think he's too tough for your team, retreat with the civilians. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Seems pretty straightforward to me," Eijiro Kirishima stated. "And I guess it'll be good practice."

Katsuki Bakugo scratched his head. "You said you'd pick which heroes going against which villains. How are they being picked?"

Aizawa let the question catch the air for a minute. Then he grinned maliciously. A grin that, unfortunately, the students were familiar with. "You will be pitted against villains specifically chosen to exploit your weaknesses and defend against your strengths. In addition, they're being told of who you are, what you can do, _and_ what you normally do in advance. In other words, you will have everything stacked against you. You will be forced to confront your weaknesses and play against your strengths in order to scrape out a victory."

There was a stunned silence. 

"And you're pitting us against actual villains for this?" Minoru Mineta cried. "This is insane! How would anyone hero be able to come on top in such an event?"

"Real heroes suffer the problem of popularity. Popular heroes will constantly be fighting villains who know everything about them, and in turn be in the dark about the villains they're fighting. The only way to avoid fighting villains your bad against is to train your judgement to know when to run and when to fight." He chuckled. "Another note. These villains will not show an ounce of mercy to you. The teachers that will be stationed nearby are for emergencies in which the villain actually tries something he shouldn't. However, unless you're in mortal danger, the teacher's will not interfere." He looked over the students. "Feel free to return the favor. Do not show any mercy to the villains."

Bakugo grinned. Midoriya, in contrast, put his hand on his chin in thought. 

"Get ready. Today, rest up. Tomorrow, the real challenge starts."

Aizawa strode out the gates to UA. The villains hadn't arrived yet. Traffic? He pulled out a phone to dial up the truck drivers, but stopped when he noticed the girl in a red hood standing by the gate. He turned to face her. "Ruby? What are you doing here?"

She looked him in the eyes, then turned away. He frowned. "What is it?"

She handed him a note. He read it, then took a step back. "When?"

"This morning. We...we just go the news."

He looked at the note he held. 

"The doctors said it was in her sleep. She...she was smiling, at the end, and I guess that's what matters most." She smiled sadly, then began walking off. "Come on, Weiss." Aizawa hadn't noticed the girl in the white dress, who took Ruby's hand and began leading her. 

"Ruby!" Aizawa called. Ruby stopped and looked at him. Not that it mattered, as she was blind. "Tell your father...give him my condolences." Aizawa looked back at the note as the two girls walked off. Then, he wiped a single tear from his eye as he walked back into UA. 


	2. Vs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The students begin fighting their assigned villains.

Aizawa looked out at the gathered students. "All right then. First up, Rikido Sato, Eijiro Kirishima, Denki Kaminari, and Momo Yaoyorozu."

The students, in costume, strode forward. Aizawa looked back at his notes--something he rarely did. "We will deploy you into City A. A villain has been causing mass damage--two pro heroes went in to stop him, but were taken down. Move out." Aizawa gestured to a nearby helicopter. The four went on it. 

"Alright then." Momo looked over City A, which was smoking in several places, as the helicopter rose into the air.

"Why were we chosen?" Kirishima asked. "Most of us work well together, and if this is a challenge playing to our weaknesses..."

"What common weakness do we all have?" Momo asked. "We need to figure this out."

"Not that it really matters, does it?" Kaminari asked. "I mean, we still have to fight the same villain..."

"You've seen everything the teachers have thrown out at us before," Momo snapped. "I mean, what if we fail if we don't figure out our weaknesses?"

"Yeah, Aizawa usually tells us those kinds of things," Kirishima pointed out. "But if it helps, the only real problem I have is endurance. Cause at a certain point, I just run out of hard."

Momo stopped. "Yes! That's it! Endurance! I run out of juice after creating too many things. Kaminari, you can only really throw out one big attack. Sato, if the fight lasts more than three minutes, you end up getting tired and slowed down."

"So...an endurance match?" Kirishima asked. 

"So, we just need to tank a few hits, but deal as much damage as possible in as short of a time as possible?" Sato asked. 

"Speed run!" Kaminari cried, punching a fist into the air.

"Wait, were they supposed to know that they had cameras on their shoulders?" Midoriya asked as he watched the screen. 

"Didn't I tell them?" Aizawa asked, frowning. "Oh. Oops."

"This isn't good," Uraraka asked. "They've already forgotten about the teachers on the field. Imagine Kaminari accidentally hitting one of them with his lightning!"

"He wouldn't do that," Midoriya said. 

"Says you," Bakugo snapped angrily. 

The helicopter landed. Momo jumped out, followed by the other students. "Careful. The villain could be anywhere."

"Present Mic!" Kirishima called out. The English Teacher waved to them. 

Quickly rushing over, Momo began taking the lead. "Is anyone injured?"

Mic looked around. "Uh, no, I'm fine."

Momo gave a cautious look around. "Did you see the villain?"

Mic nodded. "Yeah, he was pretty tough." He punctuated every other word with a pose. "Wearing a skull mask and playing--"

Heavy metal guitar chords sounded through the air. Mic physically flinched. "--horrible, tacky music."

"This is by far the worst music I've ever heard," Kirishima stated. 

Midoriya stared at the screen. "Death Metl?"

"What did you say?" Tenya Iida asked. 

"Death Metl was a tough villain who was defeated a year or two back. He stole an entire bank vault and carried it off."

"Hold up." Kyoka Jiro raised a hand. " 'Death Metl'?"

"Yeah. He was the lead guitarist in a band, I think." Midoriya frowned in concentration. "Oh, yeah. He murdered the lead singer in another band that was gaining more fame than him. Oh, of course it would be him for an endurance match!"

"What was his quirk?" Iida asked, looking back to the screen. Death Metl had just begun walking down the street towards the four students. He wore a tattered cloak, covered in rips, and he had on boots and jeans--with a belt that had a skull on it. He did, in fact, wear a skull mask, and had a guitar over his back. 

"As long as music he personally liked was playing, he grew more resistant to all forms of hardship," Midoriya stated. 

"Which means...?" Toru Hagakure emphatically waved her hands, or at least her gloves, the only clothing the invisible girl wore at the moment. 

"If he is listening to music he likes and receives a physical punch, like from Kirishima or Sato, his skin starts adapting to physical punches." Midoriya looked at the screen. "That's not good. Kaminari's the only one who can deliver a non-physical attack, with his lightning. And none of them really have the damage output to take him down quickly enough."

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Death Metl screamed into the air. "Fresh air feels so good down one's lungs, don't it?"

"Speed run!" Kaminari cried. He fired the metal disc from his wrist, shooting it at the villain, who ducked aside. 

"Hey, you missed," Metl stated. Kaminari grinned, and made a finger-gun motion. A stream of lightning crackled from his finger to the disc, which had stuck into a car behind Metl. Metl screamed in pain as lightning coursed through him. Sato and Kirishima rushed forward and slammed both of their fists into the villain's stomach, who was hurdled backwards into a car, which crumpled under the collision. 

"Hey, is he down on already?" Momo asked. 

"This is a 'teacher' thing, right?" The villain rose, shoulder and head slumped. "My name is Death Metl. And _that_ is not how you throw a gut punch. You see, a gut punch is designed to _stun_ one's opponent, thus throwing them back with said gut punch is a wasted effort, as you only get to throw one hit. Let me show you." Metl lunged, slamming a fist into Kirishima's stomach. He doubled over, gasping, as Metl rammed his fist into the back of his head. He flipped Kirishima around and threw him, where he landed in an unceremonious heap. 

Sato's jaw dropped. "Rikido Sato, Quirk: Sugar Rush, right?" The skull visage was fitting as the demon known as Death Metl _leered_ over Sato. Sato was tall, but Metl was _huge_. He stood a solid nine-foot tall, and he put a hand on Sato's shoulder. "When you, ahem, 'sugar rush', you ought to throw more than _one punch_ before assuming the villain is down for the count. Like _this_." A series of well placed punches placed strategically in Sato's shoulders, stomach, and face. Sato fell over in a stunned daze. 

"Denki Kaminari, right? Some sort of electrical quirk that no one ever really bothered to explain to me? Right. A good strong opener is good and all, but you actually need a good strong opener." Kaminari backed up. 

"You know, like--" A metal pipe hit him in the back of the head. And did absolutely nothing. 

"I expected a bigger result, but who cares." Kirishima entered a fighting stance. "I'm here to take you on, villain. And nothing is going to stop me."

"Yes, but can you stop me?" Metl clenched his hand into a fist. An eerie wind blew, and the tattered robe blew out behind him. It looked like it had blood splatters on it. "Heh. This...this is going to be _fun_."

Kirishima rushed in, throwing punches. Metl casually blocked a few blows, then let one connect with his face. He chuckled, then decked Kirishima, who flung over and backwards. One of Kaminari's Pointers shot towards him and he caught it. He grinned as Kaminari shot him with lightning, then threw the Pointer at Sato. It hit Sato, who was also shocked by Kaminari's lightning. Kaminari quickly released the lightning flow, calling, "Sato!"

Quick as a flash, Metl lunged and leered over Kaminari. "Pay attention, kid." A knee to the stomach was enough to knock down Kaminari. Metl laughed, then ducked as a metal staff swung towards his head. He stepped back and looked at Momo. She spun the staff around and then advanced. Blow after blow. Metl blocked with his hands, the metal clanging uselessly against him. He slowly stepped backwards, and Momo rushed forward, crying out in anger, throwing blow after blow. Metl caught the staff and crushed it. He aimed a kick at Momo's stomach, but she jumped backwards, letting go of the staff. 

Metl strode towards her, crumpling the staff into a ball. "Not bad." 

Momo stared at him, then, bellowing a cry of anger, charged forward. She jumped into the air and gave a kick at Metl. Metl raised his hand, and Momo landed on it. Momo threw her arms into the air, and created something as she jumped off his arm. Metl looked at the ground in surprise. "What's this? Rubber balls? But--oh. Well, shi--"

The ground he stood on erupted into fire. The ground quaked, and Momo was thrown off her feet. 

"A little overkill, don't you think?" Kaminari asked, helping her to her feet. Momo rubbed her head, then cried out in pain. She'd been too close the explosion, and had hit the ground hard. Thus it shouldn't have come as a surprise that her shoulder was now dislocated. 

She flinched, rubbing her arm. "Sorry. I guess I just...didn't want to fail?"

"You might have to work harder than that, then." Death Metl strode out of the blazing inferno, on _fire._ He laughed. "Nice one, though. You almost had me."

"How is he still standing?" Kaminari cried. Kirishima put himself in front of the hurt Momo. 

"Man, you are really getting on my nerves." Kirishima took a step forward. 

"There's gotta be something more here," Momo said. 

Kaminari gave her a confused look. "Huh? Whaddya mean?"

"Our attacks aren't doing anything. This isn't just an endurance match. It's...something else."

"If only I could think without that music playing," Kaminari grimaced. 

Momo stopped. "Why is he playing music?"

"Style, I guess?"

"No. Something more than that..." Momo rubbed her injured shoulder. "Can you keep him busy for a few minutes?"

"Er, yeah?" Momo had a spark in her eyes. And, as Kaminari quickly realized, a plan forming in her head. She ran off into the streets. 

"Sending the injured away, eh?" Death Metl shrugged. "Ah, well. Time for the three of you remaining to go join her." He punched his fists together. 

Kirishima and Sato ran towards him, throwing out punches. Metl threw out his hands, letting the punches catch the back of his arms. Kaminari and Sato threw their weight against him, causing him to stagger. 

"You're weight doesn't increase, and you're not super strong," Kirishima gloated as he and Sato stepped back. 

"Or that smart," Kaminari called out. He made a finger gun motion. 

Seconds too late, Metl turned and realized that Kaminari had maneuvered so that the Pointer was behind him. He laughed as the lightning coursed through him. "Not bad, kid."

Kirishima gritted his teeth. "Then how about I up the voltage?"

"Kaminari, don't--" Kirishima stepped back as a stream of lightning flashed through the air. Metl cried out, then fell to the ground. He rose to his feet a moment later. 

"Damn, that was tough. You, kid, can pack a serious--"

"Duh-duh." Unfortunately, the lightning had been too intense, but it had impacted Kaminari more than Death Metl. He had been stupided. 

"WHAT THE HELL?" Death Metl stared at the bumbling, stumbling Kaminari. "I'd heard about the 'stupid' thing, but...what the Hell?"

Kirishima rubbed his head. "Oh, great. That stupid music is giving me a headache."

Death Metl stood stock still. "Stupid?"

Kirishima glared at him. "Yeah, you hear right."

"That's _my_ music. I wrote and did the guitar for this song." His cape fluttered in a breeze. It looked like rain was coming later that day. 

Kirishima took a step back. He'd stopped yelling--now, Death Metl stood, a silent reaper, tattered cloak billowing like a cloud of smoke. 

"Do you know what happened to the last person who called my music stupid?" he asked quietly. "He got his violin bow stabbed through his eyes." He looked at Kirishima. His eyes were full of murder and blood lust. "How would you like me to grab that _stupid_ face of yours and sh--" The music stopped abruptly. Everyone slowly turned and looked at a victorious-looking Momo, holding up a boom box with her good arm. She dropped it, then smashed it with her foot. 

"Your music sucks worse than your costume," she stated.

Metl stared. "Well, shit," he finally said. Kirishima rushed him and hit him from behind. Death Metl staggered backwards. 

"Hey, he felt that one!" Kirishima grinned, then rammed his fist into Metl's gut. Death Metl gasped and doubled over as Kirishima hit him in the back of his head, and followed it up by kneeing him in the face. As Death Metl stumbled backwards, Kirishima added, "And _that_ is how one throws a gut punch."

Death Metl rose to his feet. Sato collided with him, throwing punch after punch. Metl blocked a few, but most hit him square on. Contrary to the start of the fight, each hit seemed to hurt him _more_ now. Sato threw one final punch, knocking Death Metl back into the center of the street. Momo jumped over and quickly created and threw another staff. It hit Death Metl square in the face, and clattered to the ground. Metl stood, cloak billowing. "Tell me he's down," Kirishima said, taking a step backwards. Death Metl took a step forward, then fell backwards, landing on his back. 

"We did it!" Sato cried. 

Death Metl laughed. "Wow. Don't know if I got rusty or the next gen is getting tougher." He sat up. "One thing, though. Didn't Eraser Head say the primary goal was to, hmm, I don't know, save the civilians?" 

There was a stunned silence. 

"You only actually found one, Present Mic, whom Kaminari pumped full of a hundred volts of electricity." Death Metl looked at the unconscious teacher. "And, for bonus points, you made another really bad mistake." He rose and dusted himself off. 

"What's that?" Momo demanded. 

Metl threw his hands into the air, laughing. "The villain is escaping!" He turned around and began running. 

"Wha--get him!" Momo shouted. Kirishima began running, but doubled over. 

"My stomach--I think he cracked a rib..." He fell over. 

Sato charged after him, but was too slow. Death Metl jumped into a conveniently placed black car--with multiple skulls painted on it--and drove off, sticking one hand out the window, giving a rude gesture. 

There was a long moment of silence. 

"I gave you one job," Aizawa said quietly. "Get the civilians to safety. First thing you do, upon contacting the villain, is electrocute one of them." The four students flinched. 

Aizawa sighed. "Well, you're grading comes afterward. He turned back to the screen--currently, it was showing helicopter footage from over one of the other fake cities. "In any case--" He stopped. A figure stood on top of one of the buildings--tall, but not to tall. Lean. He wore a black lab coat, black jeans, and what appeared to be three separate scarves. And over his face, he wore a mask, with no holes or imperfections of any kind--not even eye holes. He wrapped himself in his cloak and disappeared. 

Aizawa stood stock still. Finally, he said, "I've got to go."

"Do you have any idea who that was?" a voice called out. All Might walked onto the field. 

"An old friend of mine," Aizawa replied. "Guess he wanted to talk."

"After your reunion is over, you ought to talk to Nezu." All Might put his hand on Aizawa's shoulder. "A...thing happened. We don't think it's serious...yet. But it's definitely weird." He took the list from Aizawa. "I'll take over for you here."

All Might looked at the list. "Kay. Who's--" An explosion went off, and smoke appeared over one of the fake cities. City E. 

"I guess he got tired of waiting," All Might grumbled. "Dammit, Samuel, learn some patience." He checked the list. "I guess the next four up are...Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Iida, Tsuyu Asui, and Toru Hagakure." He double checked the list. "Oh, come on. That's just mean."


	3. Atrophy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aizawa meets an old friend, and four students go up against one of All Might's old friends.

Aizawa walked onto the front lawn of UA. "Now, if I were a teleporter, getting in here..."

"You'd, perhaps, teleport next to the person you planned on meeting?" an echoing, amused voice asked. Aizawa looked at the tall, thin figure who looked out over the fake cities. His scarves billowed in the wind. 

"Tai." Aizawa smiled. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"Thirty years or so tend to be classified as 'a while', yes," Tai replied. 

"How have you been holding up?" Aizawa asked. 

"When I last met my wife, she tried to put a bullet in my head." It wasn't accusatory--it was a statement. "I am sad about her death, yes, but not hysterical." The faceless mask turned to regard Aizawa. "I'm pretty sure she was glad when you actually put a bullet in my head."

Aizawa flinched. "I did apologize."

"Three and a half times. I stabbed you the first time you tried, remember?" One of the scarves twitched. Aizawa eyed it, aware they were not cloth, and were certainly not worn because it was cold. 

Tai returned his gaze to the cities. "Majestic. I can almost believe them real cities with real people."

"Not really the point, but, yeah, they are kind of beautiful," Aizawa responded, stepping beside Tai. 

"Curiosity, who teaches math in UA nowadays?" Tai asked. 

"Ectoplasm, from what I thought," Aizawa said. 

"The guy who can mul--oh, was that on purpose?" Tai and Aizawa laughed. 

"Knowing Nezu, probably," Aizawa replied. 

Tai laughed, then paused, coughing. "Hmm. I may forgive you the bullet, but my throat does not." He chuckled. "Well." 

"I imagine not," Aizawa said quietly. 

Tai put his hand on Aizawa's shoulder. "Hmm. Perhaps we shall meet again soon. Perhaps not. Who can say? I know I may soon join Summer in eternal rest--and, if I happen to be lucky, I may even rest in piece. Instead of, you know, piec _es_." He chuckled again, then threw his cloak around himself and vanished. Aizawa looked over the city. "It is majestic," he mused. He hadn't thought of it so before. He turned and walked back inside, only to meet face to face with Ruby Rose, only now, she wore a black and red dress and skirt, carried a five-foot scythe-gun, and could see with two silver eyes. 

"Whoa, nearly ran into you," she said with a smile. "Sorry!"

Aizawa blinked. "What the f--"

Midoriya, Iida, Tsuyu, and Toru boarded the helicopter as it flew too the city where a monster in human skin skulked in dark, forbidden alleys. It had been well over a decade since Toshinori had last seen Samuel. And that meeting hadn't ended well. 

Samuel hadn't said anything to Toshinori the previous night--instead, he'd just made an odd request to Nezu: to be let loose in the fake city he was going to rampage in a night early, and for a small computer and some metal pipes and wires. 

For some reason, Nezu had granted the request. Toshinori had tried talking to Samuel right before he walked off, but Samuel had only told him one sentence. 

" _Save your words for your friends._ "

His meaning had been obvious. His friendship with Toshinori had been tenuous at the best of time, even before Samuel had figured out how exactly One for All worked. Samuel had barely talked to Toshinori after that day. And then...

"The city's looking bad," Midoriya's voice came over the speakers. In truth, Samuel had overdone himself. The city was smoking in numerous places, and several buildings had been knocked down. That worried Toshinori--he'd have thought, after eighteen years in prison, that the guy would have gotten rusty. As it turns out, a sixty-year old man who had been in prison for twenty years without any exercise or practice could level four buildings in what appeared to have been a little over an hour, as the buildings had been there that morning. 

"That's a lot of devastation," Iida responded. "This must be a strong villain."

The helicopter blades whirred loudly in Midoriya's ears. Midoriya's eyes scoured the city. "Hmm...there doesn't appear to be a good landing spot down there. Professor Snipe, could we fly around to find a better landing spot?"

"Sure." Snipe turned the helicopter. 

"I don't see any civilians down there," Iida stated. 

Snipe frowned down. "There aren't many good landing spots. I can only see one really good one." He turned to go down there. 

Midoriya frowned. "Professor, don't land." 

Snipe pulled up the helicopter, which began to hover. "What is it?"

Midoriya gave the surrounding city a critical examination. "Multiple buildings knocked down, rubble everywhere...and only one good landing spot. Too good, in fact." 

"Ribbit?" Tsuyu asked inquisitively. 

"Look. Everywhere you look, the ground and buildings are covered in rubble. Except..." He pointed to the potential landing spot. "There."

"A trap?" Toru asked. She ground one fist into her palm. "Okay then. What do we do?"

Midoriya considered the situation. "He can't have devastated the entire city except for the one spot. We need to find another spot to land."

"Look out!" Snipe cried, pulling the helicopter to the side. A car had been thrown at them. Midoriya kicked through the air quickly, sending a heavy blast of air and knocking the air out of the way. The car broke into dozens of pieces, metal and glass falling to the ground. 

"A car?" Toru asked. "That...that was a car. If that had hit...holy shit, that could have killed us! What is that guy thinking?"

"He's trying to force us to land," Midoriya stated, balancing himself. He grimaced. "We'll never land unless he stops throwing cars." He turned to Snipe. "We have no choice but to land."

The helicopter landed without another hitch. Midoriya looked at the surrounding area. "Forgive me, but I'm noticing a startling lack of traps," Toru said, putting her hands on what Midoriya guess were her hips. 

"Be on your guard," Iida commanded. "I think this is too suspicious. And remember, it may be a team of villains. So there is probably one sneaking around somewhere."

"CAR!" Toru screamed. Midoriya jumped and kicked the card downwards into the ground. The street for about a hundred feet around them shattered, dust and debris flying into the air. Midoriya landed on the ground, coughing. 

"I didn't think I hit it that hard," Midoriya commented. 

"Could this be his trap?" Iida asked. "I can't see anything through the rubble..."

"Kirishima's quirk makes him harder," Tsuyu commented. "Could he have a Quirk that makes things weaker?"

Midoriya put his hand on his chin in thought. "Possible. Those kind of Quirks are pretty rare, though. Only one or two villains I know of have Quirks like--" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it--a large, mechanical hand swing hard and fast at his head. He ducked and rolled away, letting the hand pass through empty air. 

He landed in a crouch. 

"He's here!" he called out. 

Iida rushed over and attacked the now-empty spot where the villain had been. 

"He's fast," Tsuyu said. "Also, why is it a 'he' now?"

Midoriya stared into the now-clearing rubble. "Hmm...fast, strong, robot hand, and a reverse-hardening quirk...no...they wouldn't have gotten..." 

"Well then. That normally works." A dry, confident voice echoed around with an amused air. Out of the dust and debris strode a massive figure. He stood around ten foot. He wore metal armor covering from his feet to his neck. A mask covered his face, except for his eyes and mouth. The skin around his eyes and mouth was cracked. He wore large gauntlets, and he appeared to have replaced his right hand--if only noticeable because, from elbow to wrist, it only consisted of two metal bars. 

He laughed. "Well, give it to the youngsters to one-up all the other heroes." He put his hand on his head. "I spent a good hour on that one." 

Midoriya's jaw dropped. 

"Stand down, in the name of justice!" Iida cried, pointing an accusatory finger at the villain. 

"Kid, in all my years, no hero has ever told me to stand down in the name of justice, and I never would have even listened."

Tsuyu dropped into a crouch. Toru's gloves raised into fists. 

"You're...you're Atrophy!" Midoriya cried. 

"You know you're stuff," Atrophy grinned, letting his hands fall to his sides. He didn't look battle-ready. He looked more relaxed than anything. "Yes, I am, in fact, the one and only Atrophy."

"Atrophy?" Iida backed up a step. "They got _him_ for this?"

"Beats sitting in a prison cell any day, and let me tell you, there are only so man television channels." He began striding forward. 

"Uh, who's Atrophy?" Toru asked. "Should I know that name?"

"Very infamous bad guy," Tsuyu croaked. "Took out over a dozen heroes."

"He's got a reverse-hardening quirk," Midoriya said, "but to use it, he shoots white fire. However, it also either backlashes on him or the ground around him."

"Does everyone know that?" Atrophy barred his teeth. He clenched his fists. "Damn. I'd have thought people had forgotten by now."

Midoriya lunged. _From all I've heard, he's fast and strong. He's also clever, and a quick thinker. I need to take him down now, but I can't go too strong too early._

Ten percent for now. From above, his foot shot towards Atrophy, who, quick as he was supposed to be, raised a hand to block. 

And he did. 

The shockwave spread outwards, blowing the other three students backwards. The windows on nearby buildings shattered. The road cracked, and the spot Atrophy stood on became a four-foot deep crater. But Atrophy's hand didn't waver, and he didn't budge.

"Really?" he said quietly, sadistic mockery tainting his dry voice. "You have been gifted with one of the most powerful Quirks this world has seen...and yet..." He pushed, muscling through Midoriya's blow and tossing him backwards. Midoriya skidded across the ground. "If you want to be a decent hero, you need to be able to throw a full punch, and gauge how much your opponent can take--and needs to take." He ground a fist into a mechanical palm. "That was my regular hand. It's not as strong as my right hand." He held up his mechanical hand. White fire spread across his hand. His eyes snapped open with fiery intensity. "I would have thought you would have known that by now." He took a step forward, then broke into a run, throwing fire across the street at the students. 


	4. Plus Ultra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midoriya and the rest fight Atrophy.

Aizawa rubbed his forehead. "Let me get this straight. Eight young and heavily armed individuals appeared right in the middle of our school, past our countless security measures, in front of all the teachers, _and nobody knows what happened?_ "

"That...just about sums it up," Yang Xia Long said, running a hand through her abundant yellow hair. 

"And I don't think this is the same world as Beacon is," Lie Ren said simply. "Have you ever heard of a Grimm, Professor?"

Aizawa fixed him with a piercing glare. "No."

"And we've never heard of UA," Blake Belladonna said, leaning back in her chair. 

"I wonder if there's a version of us in this world," Jaune Arc stated suddenly. 

"That would be fun," Yang agreed. 

"Have you seen a Ruby Rose, er, Professor?" Ruby asked, turning to Aizawa. 

Aizawa didn't answer. 

"We could probably look it up," Nezu stated. "See, using Google, type in Jaune Arc..." He pulled out a phone and started typing. "Ta-dah! Jaune Arc was a regionally famous violinist who was mur--" He stopped reading. 

"Who was what?" Jaune asked, looking at him. 

"It doesn't matter," Nezu said hurriedly, tucking the phone away. 

"Read it," Jaune demanded. 

Nezu reluctantly pulled the phone back out. "Well, you were, in this world, murdered by a Harold Skillz, with your own violin bow."

There was a stunned silence. 

"Harold Skillz." Aizawa thought for a moment. "Death Metl, right? Didn't we pull him in for the Villain Reformation Act?" 

"Huh?"

"He's here. At the school. Right now." Aizawa cocked his head. "Walking down the hallway." The door banged open. 

"Suuuuuuuuuuup, Nezers?" Death Metl cried, posing in the open doorway. His eyes stopped and focused on Jaune. "You're...shorter than I remember."

Aizawa chuckled. "This is going to be fun."

Iida jumped out of the way as a giant, metal fist hit the ground he'd been standing on. He gave a sweeping kick that glanced harmlessly off Atrophy. 

"After all I've heard about you, you're not nearly as tough in person as I thought you'd be," Atrophy laughed, swinging a fist towards Iida. Iida stepped inside and underneath the blow, ramming his leg as hard as possible into Atrophy's chest. He winced, but then immediately made a grab for Iida, who barely got out of the way in time. 

_None of my attacks do anything!_ Iida thought. _How are we supposed to take him--_ He stopped. 

"Midoriya!" he called out. "Asui! Fan out and start looking for civilians!"

"Ribbit?" Tsuyu looked up at him. 

"We're not supposed to take down the villain! That's not the point! We're supposed to save the civilians!" 

"Ah, crap!" Atrophy winced. "I didn't expect you to figure it out so soon!" 

"Split up!" Toru called out. 

The four students all ran a different direction. Atrophy stood where he was for a second, before finally saying, "Well, shit."

Midnight sat on a broken car, patiently waiting. She began idly tapping the metal roof of the car. Then she began surveying the broken glass in the surrounding area. 

Needless to say, she was not patient. 

"Where is everyone?" she finally burst out. 

"Shh!" Toru said from behind her. Midnight, startled, jumped back and fell off the car. 

"Please don't be knocked out, I can't carry you," Toru stated. 

"I'm fine," Midnight replied. 

"Come on," Toru said, helping Midnight to her feet. "Let's get to the helicopter." The two began sneaking along the ruined streets. Toru peaked around a corner. "Aha! There it is and--fuuuuuuuuuck."

Midnight blinked at the sudden burst of profanity. She peaked around the corner, only to see Atrophy just finishing up chasing Snipe away. The helicopter flew into the air. 

"That bastard," Midnight whispered. 

"Once he goes, we'll signal Snipe to land," Toru whispered back. 

Atrophy stopped in his tracks, then looked at the corner where Toru and Midnight hid. 

"Nice hiding spot," he commented. "But I realized last night, I didn't have to take out the heroes. All I had to do was take out the civilians. And/or the helicopter, though that one didn't work out so well."

Toru jumped back just as a stream of white fire blasted past her. Then Atrophy smashed through the wall, throwing Toru and Midnight away. Toru jumped to her feet, then quickly walked back as Atrophy attacked, narrowly missing her. Then he attacked again, narrowly missing this time as well. 

_How does he know where I am?_ she thought. _I'm invisible, and I took off the gloves!_

Then she noticed, over one of his eyes, was a small, glass monocle. But, playing in it, was a video recording...of Atrophy's face?

"You bastard! You hacked the cameras!" she exclaimed. 

Toshinori's jaw dropped. "That...bastard..." His head thudded loudly into his palms. _That's what you wanted with the computer..._

Samuel had, evidently, kept every bit of his wit. 

They were going to have to have a very long talk with that man. 

Atrophy's hand grabbed Toru's arm and crushed it. He held her into the air. "You know, I kinda wonder why they put those cameras there. But, who cares?" He shrugged. Toru grabbed his arm and attempted to force it off, but it was useless. 

"If invisibility is your only power, you ought to try and avoid facing opponents directly," Atrophy stated. Toru looked him in the eyes, a rather pointless gesture, given the circumstances. Then, she punched his eye. The monocle shattered, sending broken glass into his unprotected eye. "AAAAAH WHATTHEFUCK YOU STUPID BITCH!" Atrophy threw her away, letting her skid across the concrete, then stumbled backwards, clutching his bleeding eye. Midnight rushed over and helped Toru to her feet. 

"Thank any gods you believe in that I found where you landed," she muttered, bringing Toru over to where the helicopter landed. "And don't worry about Atrophy--he's suffered worse wounds. Something about him allows him to heal pretty quickly. Probably something to do with his Quirk." 

"Get on board," Snipe called out. "I got a call from Iida. He found Comet, and he wanted me to stop over there." Midnight seated Toru down and started setting her arm in a cast. "Damn that idiot. Doesn't he know how to deal with children?" she muttered. 

The helicopter lifted off as Atrophy clutched his face, screaming in anguish. 

"He'll...probably be fine," Midnight said, amending her previous statement. 

"Firecracker burned his arm off, a while back," Snipe said. "The whole thing. Up to the shoulder."

"Huh? Doesn't the mechanical arm only start at the elbow?"

Snipe nodded. 

"How does one grow back half an arm?" Midnight asked. 

"I think..." Snipe paused. "Toshinori explained that his Quirk doesn't just weaken things. It steals structural integrity, he said." He looked at her. "Hey, weren't you in that meeting?"

She blushed. "It was a long day yesterday, okay? A girl's gotta sleep sometime!"

Snipe sighed. "Well, if I had to guess, he can use that stolen strength to heal himself."

"But if that's the case, why does his face look like Dracula bathed in a tub of glass shards?" Midnight asked. 

"I dunno. But I know that was caused by some backlash from his own quirk." 

Midnight looked out the window. Atrophy had moved--he wasn't in the street anymore. Midnight felt sorry for most villains, wondering what would cause them to villainy. But was Atrophy...just broken?

Iida paced back and forth. "What is taking so long?" he asked. 

Comet idly played with a yo-yo. "Helicopter rides can often be troublesome," she said. "You have to find the perfect landing spot, otherwise you won't be able to safely land."

"Have you ever fought Atrophy?" Iida asked suddenly. 

Comet laughed. "Yeah, no thank you. I'll leave people like him to the pro heroes, thank you very much." She then looked at Iida's face. "Oh, right. Er..."

"And they threw that man in with a bunch of kids?" Iida's fists clenched. 

"By all accounts, it seems like a bad idea, doesn't it?" Comet shrugged. "His girlfriend was supposed to be watching, making sure he didn't go to far."

"What do you know about Firecracker?" Iida sat next to Midnight. 

Comet thought that over. "Nothing much. She mostly keeps to herself. I think she's got some kind of fire quirk?" She shrugged. "I know she was on the team of people that finally took him down. Her, All Might, and Paladin, though I thought he died."

"Hmm. Teleportation Quirk, right?"

"A really weird one, from all accounts." Comet put her chin in her hands. "More of, creating portals to other locations, then walking through them. He could hold them open. He mostly brought other heroes to the location of the big villain." Comet frowned. "Come to think of it, he was the only one who died in the fight against Atrophy."

"Really?"

"He didn't directly kill anyone," Comet frowned deeper. "Weird. Atrophy sounds like one weird dude. And, from all accounts, he's really just a great big a--"

"Finish that sentence," a voice called out. "I dare you."

Atrophy had found them. "Atrophy!" Comet screamed. Iida looked at her. She blushed. "Er...I was...role playing. You know, helpless civilian and all."

Atrophy had one hand over his eye. "Your invisible friend was a special level of bitch, hero." He let his hands fall to his sides, revealing a bloodshot eye surrounded by what looked to be ten year old scars. "But she was clever about it, so I can't really complain too much." As he walked forward, white fire dripped from his hands. "Now, I really hope you prove to be less bothersome." He threw a blast of white fire. Iida jumped aside, carrying Comet out of the way. The car burst into flames, split in half, and turned to a fine dust. 

"My hero," Comet said, relaxing in Iida's arms. Another blast of fire rained down, and Iida began running with Comet. 

"You know, you should really lose some weight," he muttered. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Comet snapped. Atrophy was following, equal to Iida's speed. 

_He's fast!_ Iida grimaced. _I don't know how long I can keep this up. If I were running at normal speeds, I could stay ahead of him. However..._ "Can you use your Quirk to boost us?"

"Sorry, my energy blasts don't have recoil," she replied. 

"Get my phone from my pocket and call Snipe," Iida told her. "He needs to intercept us at a good landing spot." He ducked underneath a blast of white fire. 

Atrophy suddenly stopped. Comet paused, phone up to her ear, mid-sentence. "Uh, Iida, I don't like what he's doing." White fire spread up from his hands to his shoulders. He lifted his hands high above his head, then slammed them into the ground with a cry of rage. A white shockwave rippled through the road and nearby buildings. As Iida ran, the road beneath his feet shattered. He stumbled, and both he and Comet fell down and rolled. Atrophy strolled up to them, rubbing his arms. "Been a while since I've done that one. More exhausting than usual. Ah, I've gotten rustier than I would've liked." He strode to Iida, then turned to Comet. She looked at him. "Er...hi."

He gave her a flat look, then casually blocked Iida's attempted kick to the face with a hand. Iida jumped back as Atrophy swung. "Hmph. Good reflexes, kid. Those'll save you more than any classroom lecture would." He paused. Iida gave him a look of pure hate and contempt. "What's with the frowny face?"

"You are nothing more than a villain," Iida said. "You have caused mass damage, destroyed homes, severely injured people..." Iida took a fighting stance. "I will stop you!"

"But you don't think you have the strength," Atrophy replied. "You know what you need to do, but you also know you don't have the strength to do it." Atrophy took a step forward. "Going to go all 'Plus Ultra' on me, are you? Let me give you some advice, Tenya Iida. Will to fight will not magically give you extra strength. If you can't climb the hill, saying, 'I think I can' over and over again will not do anything." He took an aggressive stance. "In other words, there is no 'Plus Ultra'. Combat skill is nothing more than physical strength and intelligence. No amount of wishing will ever change who you are, at your core. If you are only so fast, you can only ever be so fast. If you are only so strong, you can only ever be so strong." He leaned forward, towering over Iida. "There is no God to save you. There is no shining figure in golden armor who will save you. There is no Plus Ultra." 

"Don't make me laugh," Iida grinned. "I've seen Midoriya go above and beyond more times than I can count." The helicopter landed in the background. Comet rose to her feet. "There is a Plus Ultra inside everyone. It just waits to be let out for when it is needed." He struck at Atrophy, parried and attacked back. Iida jumped beneath his blow and kicked up, hitting him in the face. A crack appeared in the metal mask, and Atrophy staggered backwards. "Get to the helicopter," Iida told Comet. He turned to Atrophy. "Your theology is wrong, villain. You will be defeated by it." Iida turned and jumped into the copter, which immediately flew off. 

"Tsuyu?" Iida asked. 

"Call me 'Tsu'," she snapped. She was sitting next to Midnight and Mount Lady, who was munching loudly on a thing of Tai food. "I managed to avoid Atrophy entirely. Toru wasn't so lucky, but with some help from Recovery Girl, she'll be alright quickly."

"Ow! Comet, that's my broken arm!" Toru exclaimed. Comet jumped to her feet. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"Got a call from Midoriya," Snipe called from the front. "He found Ectoplasm downtown, in the park." 

Down on the ground, Atrophy rose to his feet. Then, he started running.

"Wait!" Toru exclaimed. "If he no longer has access to the camera systems, how did he find Iida so quickly? And why is he running towards the park at breakneck speed?"

"If that idiot hacked our phones, I will seriously put a bullet in his head," Snipe grumbled, turning the helicopter to follow Atrophy. "I'm giving Midoriya warning."

Midoriya's phone rang. He pulled it out and answered. "Atrophy's closing fast on your location," Snipe said. "Get ready for combat."

"What? How did he find--" He ducked beneath a thrown car, which skidded across the road ahead of him. Then he jumped aside as the ground beneath him shattered beneath Atrophy's fist. 

He looked at Midoriya with murderous intent. "So, you little brat. I've heard a lot about how powerful you are. So...SHOW ME!" He raised both hands, and blasted white fire across the entire street. It hit Midoriya, enveloping him. As was reported, it didn't burn. According to reports, the fire weakened muscle strength. But Midoriya didn't feel any weaker. As the fire passed, he blinked in confusion. Then, the phone he was holding and the camera on his shoulder turned to a fine dust. 

"So then. Toshinori did give his worthless Quirk to you, did he?" Atrophy spat. He rose up. "That piece of shit passed it on." He glared at Midoriya. 

"How do you know about that?" Midoriya asked, startled. 

"Let me tell ya something. When I discovered my Quirk, I was so glad. So elated. Then, I discovered something. All men are created unequal. My quirk weakened my body. _Permanently._ Nothing I did could return my physical strength back. Luckily, I happened to be a good inventor, so I made this suit. Or, the first prototype. I did discover how to pass the backlash on, and enrolled into UA. And met Toshinori." He laughed. "I've heard about you and Katsuki Bakugo. Your rivalry almost rivals mine and Toshinori's. We were always trying to one-up each other in tests. Our teachers could barely tell which one of us to praise more. Then, one day, we decided to figure out which one of us was objectively stronger. And that day I discovered..." He clenched his teeth. "That my Quirk had no effect on him."

Midoriya began walking backwards as Atrophy lurched over. "So I shouted, demanding to know what exactly his Quirk was. Turns out, it simply stores his own inner power." He laughed. "Doesn't matter how much I weaken his muscles if he's using his own inner power, now, does it? Moreover, the fact that it stored power broke the one view I had held consistently for my entire life. There was...no limit to All Might." He was snarling now. "That day, my entire viewpoint, everything I'd' ever held to be true, shattered. For if I had been wrong about something so major, what else could I have been wrong about?" He stumbled forward, arms swinging back and forth. "I had definable limits. I was limited by the technology I wore and my bothersome Quirk. But he...that bastard...had no limit. He, who's only real goal was to become 'the number one', the knight in shining armor." He struck, Midoriya barely dodging back in time. His fist embedded itself into the ground. "It was that day I decided to kill him and whoever he passed his Quirk to," he said quietly. "But I was never strong enough to kill Toshinori. He was never alone when we fought after that. Even when I tricked him into letting his guard down, he always had friends to pull him to safety." He pulled his fist from the road. "Tell me, Izuku Midoriya. No, tell me, _Deku_." Atrophy looked Midoriya in the eyes. "Are you strong enough to stop me?" 

Midoriya stepped backwards, then stopped. _So much new information...I'll have to double check with All Might later...but for now..._ He put one foot in front of the other. _I have to take him down._ _I have to_ win! 

"Twenty percent--Detroit Smash!" Atrophy caught the kick with his hands, but the road couldn't support him. He flung backwards, leaving a broken trail of rubble behind him, but immediately charged forward, throwing concrete into the air. His fist swung towards Midoriya's face. Midoriya ducked, and threw a punch into his stomach. He hadn't used his fists in a while, but it was effective. Atrophy doubled over, and Midoriya kneed him in the stomach, throwing back into a building. Atrophy smashed through the building, the entire top half collapsing. Then, the entire building dropped. Smoke filled the air as Atrophy strode forward. 

_"Samuel!"_

_Atrophy stood at the edge of the skyscraper. Multiple helicopters circled overhead. Atrophy turned as All Might, Firecracker, and Paladin stepped from a glowing portal._

_"Toshinori," he said curtly. "Here to actually_ fight _me this time?" Atrophy glared at All Might._

_"Sam," Firecracker stepped forward. "Please, let us help. You're not acting right."_

_"It's the world that's not acting right."_

"You think you can beat me at any less than a hundred percent?" Atrophy snarled. "Toshinori never fought me at a hundred percent, and he never beat me, one on one." He looked at Midoriya. "And you are not Toshinori."

Midoriya took a step back. Atrophy attacked, a spree of punches each landing just short of Midoriya as he jumped back. "Come on, then!" Atrophy screamed. "Fight me, Deku! Show me your power! Show me your _might_! Show me your Plus Ultra!"

Deku jumped backwards as both of Atrophy's hands hit the ground at the same time. The stone cracked, and Deku lunged, a sweeping leg kick going around at Atrophy's head. Atrophy ducked beneath it and swung up at Deku, who kicked the incoming fist. Deku flung away, landing on his feet and slowing himself to a stop. Atrophy rose, wringing out his hand. 

_Atrophy's boot cracked Firecracker's ribs. His boot squeezed down on her chest. "You...took his side?" he looked over at All Might and Paladin. "Honestly. How do you_ _inspire people? Being such a waste of power." He strode at them. "And you still refuse to fight me a hundred percent, cause I'm your friend." Atrophy made a fake pouty face, then laughed. "Jesus Christ, you make me sick. A disgrace to everything I've ever believed in."_

Atrophy lunged. Deku ducked beneath him and rammed himself into Atrophy's stomach. Atrophy, however, was prepared for that and grabbed Deku's arm, whipped him around, and threw him. Deku hit a car, which was crushed. Deku winced, then as he looked up, saw Atrophy jumping at him. With a startled cry, he jumped away. As Atrophy hit the car, it exploded. He walked through the fire and the smoke, his figure made out of anger and resentment. 

"I have fought several villains," Midoriya said. "But...of them all...you're the only one I've pitied."

Atrophy stopped. "No. No, no, no. You don't have the right to pity me."

_Atrophy buried his fist into All Might's stomach. He punched him the face next, then the chest. "Fight back!" he snarled. "Actually land a blow that you weren't holding back! Stop pitying me!"_

"Pity isn't a right," Midoriya replied. "It's common courtesy."

_"There's still good inside you, Samuel," All Might gasped. "I would never give up on a friend. Or even a friend's friend. How could I call myself the symbol of peace if I stopped believing in the good inside everyone?"_

Atrophy swung. Midoriya ducked. He jumped backwards. 

"Stop running! Just...stand and fight me!" Atrophy kept on swinging. Midoriya kept on dodging. 

He landed a hit. Midoriya shot back, skipping across the ground, stones flying up every time, and he landed at the helicopter.

Which Ectoplasm was on. 

Climbing into the helicopter, Midoriya laughed. 

Atrophy fell to his knees. "You beat me," he whispered. "Toshinori never beat me."

Midoriya grinned. "As you said, I'm not All--Toshinori."

Atrophy blinked, hands falling to the ground as the helicopter flew off. 

_Atrophy knelt on the ground, one arm missing, multiple ribs cracked, mask long broken and forgotten."You finally hit me. But...why..." He rose, clutching his side with his remaining hand. "Why didn't you go all out?"_

_Firecracker stood on one knee, supporting herself with Paladin's sword. Paladin himself had disappeared into a portal with Atrophy, in an attempt to teleport him into a jail cell._

_He hadn't come back out._

_All Might lowered his fist. Atrophy took a step forward, then fell forward on his face, unconscious._

"Did someone learn a lesson in humility?" an all-to-familiar voice asked. 

Atrophy didn't respond. 

Firecracker stepped up next to him. She was shorter than most people. Her casual wear was like her cooking--simple, yet nice. Blue jeans and tank top. Her blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail. She kissed his cheek, leaning on him. Finally, Atrophy spoke. 

"That kid..." A shine flashed through his eyes. "That kid is going places."


	5. Identity Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School activities finish, and a lot of soul-searching is done.

Toshinori looked through his notepad. "All four civilians saved. Villain was not defeated, but, given the circumstances, it seems Aizawa had some leniency on that front." Toshinori looked at the students. "Great job. Toru, you, uh, might want to see Recovery Girl. Anyone else hurt?" 

"I've got some bruises, but I don't feel like anything's broken," Midoriya said, rubbing his arm. "Oh, yeah. Uh, All Might? After my camera broke, he...talked." He leaned in close. "About your past." Toshinori stiffened, then sighed. "We'll talk about that afterwards. Anyways, time for the next students to go."

Ruby Rose sat in Nezu's office, at his computer. "I feel like this is a waste of time," Blake said, standing over her shoulder. 

"Come on, I'm curious!" Ruby said defensively. "Also, aren't you supposed to be curious, cause curiosity killed the--" Blake glared at her. "Ah, nevermind." She typed her name into the search bar. "Alright. Dunno what Wikipedia is, but this Google thing appears to trust it." She leaned forward. "Ruby Haidenfraud Rose."

"Your middle name is Haidenfraud?" Blake asked. 

"I thought you said you weren't curious," Ruby snapped. 

"Not about my interdimensional doppelganger," Blake replied. 

"Let's see. Born of...Summer Rose and Taiyang Xia Long. Her older sister, is her half sister, between Tiayang and...Raven Branwen. She was born blind. To help her get around, the family enlisted the help of a 'Weiss Schnee'. Her father is...a supervillain." She paused, then clicked the link. 

Half the page was immediately redacted. "Name: Redacted. Aliases: Taiyang Xia Long, Eclipse, Eternal Night, The Unrising Sun...parents...birthday...occupation..." She stopped. "Kill count...sixty four civilians, seven pro heroes, his partner in crime, Kali Belladonna..." She stared at the screen. "Quirk...I guess his Semblance?...he can snuff out nearby light sources, he can travel through shadows, he has limited control over metal, lightning fast reflexes, increased regeneration, precision movement..." She stopped again. "That list is too long. Didn't Nezu say people had only one Quirk?" She scrolled down. "He figured out how to use one person's DNA to 'graft their Quirk onto someone else'...he did that on a lot of people. It says it took him a few years how to do it without killing or severely damaging the structural integrity of the original person's DNA." Ruby gulped. "Good gods. This is messed up. It says here...his rain of villainy was finally stopped when his previous friend and student, the Pro Hero Eraser Head, killed him with five shots to the throat."

"Stop reading it," Blake whispered. 

Ruby clicked the 'Eraser Head' link. "Shota Aizawa. Wait...that guy? No wonder he was so freaked out..." She rose, then suddenly...

_Strapped down. Needles jabbed into her shoulder. Muscles growing taught. Fleshing tearing itself apart and reknitting. Eyes bulging. Two shadowy forms standing above her._

_"Hold her down!"_

_"We need to make this work, for her..."_

_"Shit! If she lives, she's going to be pissed."_

Ruby came to. Nezu had entered the room, and the rest of Team RWBY and Team JNPR was there. 

"Uh...what happened?"

"You passed out," Nezu said. 

"You're Aura was spazzing," Blake said. "Flickering."

"Is that bad?" another voice chimed in. Recovery Girl walked over. 

"Your Aura is a representation of your soul," Pyrrha explained. "So bad."

"Very bad," Weiss added. 

Ruby sat up on the couch. "I feel fine. I just...was doing some reading, and suddenly...this...vision, I guess..." 

"Is that bad?" Recovery Girl asked. 

"Probably," Weiss replied. 

"Well, I'll do a basic check-up, but if you don't have any injuries, there's nothing I can fix," Recovery Girl pulled out a stethoscope and began checking Ruby's heartbeat. 

"Maybe an outside attack?" Blake asked. "We don't know how we ended up here. It could be some sort of targeted attack."

"Hmm...what do you think of that theory, Aizawa?" Nezu asked, turning to the professor. 

Aizawa leaned over the computer, head in his hands. "Why...did you have that page open?"

"Eh?" Ruby looked at him. "I don't know what you mean."

"The page on Eclipse!" The computer crashed to the floor. Aizawa looked legitimately angry. 

"I was trying to find out...who I was in this world," Ruby replied. 

"What are you talking about? Who's Eclipse?"

Aizawa's cold glare centered on Yang. "Let me tell you. He was a murderous psychopath. He murdered his best friend. He killed seventy people, and that's just what's on record. God only knows how many people were killed before someone noticed. He taught at UA so he could kidnap kids and use them for his Quirk grafting experiments." 

" _Aizawa_ ," Recovery Girl said firmly. 

Ruby had shied away from him. Everyone had. Aizawa stood up and straightened himself. Then, without another word, he left he room. 

"What's his problem?" Yang asked. "Wait, are you a serial killer in this world?"

"No, but it looks like Dad is." Ruby looked away. 

"Tai used to be a teacher at UA. But it was only so he could kidnap kids and use them in his experiments. It was his wife that finally revealed it." Nezu sat down. "Before the end, he tried kidnapping his star pupil, Aizawa. He...had a useful Quirk. He could negate other people's Quirks by looking at them. So Eclipse...he didn't realize how skilled Aizawa was. He broke out and the two fought. Shortly, the police arrived, and Eclipse teleported out. He remained at large for about ten years before Aizawa killed him." Nezu looked at Ruby. "I've tried talking to him about it. But he...can be stubborn. Tea?" 

"Thanks." Ruby sipped the tea. 

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked. 

"Yeah?" 

"People in this world don't have Auras. But we do. Could that be causing problems?"

Pyrrha paused. "Maybe. I...I don't know."

"I tried using my Semblance earlier," Ren admitted. "I felt...some weird resistance. I do not think it is safe for people of Remnant to live in this world for too long."

"But we don't know how to get back," Blake pointed out. 

There was a long silence. Finally, Ren closed his eyes. His form flickered gray, flickered back to normal color, then gray again, and finally to normal color. He opened his eyes. "There is definitely resistance with my Semblance. Not persistent, but it is there."

"We probably ought to avoid combat situations while we're trying to figure this out," Weiss added. 

"Well." Toshinori scratched his head. "You set half the town on fire, leveled two buildings, and ended up losing a legal court case to the villain, who successfully sued you for $666 dollars." He looked at Bakugo, Todoroki, Tokoyami, and Ashido. "But you saved all the civilians and defeated the Elementalists, two of whom are now in the legit hospital. I...don't know how to grade that."

"Well, you obnoxious old fart!" Bakugo snapped. 

"Right. I'll let Aizawa handle that." He turned to the next page in the notepad. "Oh. We're done." He looked up at the students. "Good job, all of you. These situations were specifically designed so that even pro heroes would have difficulty, and yet, most of you managed it." He looked back at the notepad. "Except you, Mineta. Aizawa actually planned on your being...well, you...so he added an extra condition for grade reduction. You got a failing grade by 2 points."

Everyone looked at the now depressed Mineta. 

"You kinda had it coming," multiple students stated. 

"You really did," Comet said from her seat, slurping a smoothie loudly. "Damn. Playing damsel-in-distress is exhausting."

"You didn't do anything," Iida pointed out. 

"Did I?" she asked.

"No!"

She thought for a second. "Fair enough."

Midoriya took the moment to walk over to Toshinori. "C'mon," Toshinori told him. He began walking, and Midoriya followed him. 

A few minutes later, they sat in All Might's office, cups of steaming tea in front of each of them. "Samuel and I ended up in the same home-room class. We were...I guess...friends. The two of us, Lisa, and Annaisha. Atrophy, All Might, Firecracker, and Paladin. We all knew, but all ignored, Samuel's mental condition. The guy was crazy. Paranoid, delusional...he could barely function as a normal person. But it all came crashing down the day the two of us actually sparred together, and he found out his Quirk had no effect on me. None of them had really asked my Quirk before, but that day...he went ballistic."

_Samuel picked Toshinori up and slammed him against the wall. "What the hell did you do?"_

_"Agh! Sam, what are you talking about? I didn't do anything!"_

_"Like hell you didn't!"_

"Once I'd told him how my Quirk worked..." Toshinori took a sip from his tea. "I guess the last thing in his broken world that made sense finally broke with everything else. He'd always believed that everyone had an in-built limit. However...if I never used One for All, letting it build up power, it would never stop building it up. In other words, he figured that I had no limit. I mean, I do. I do have limited strength. But he saw it how he saw it. And I guess that's the day our friendship ended. He became...an antisocial shut-in. The rest of us would go out for dinner, he'd stay in his room. We'd all go shopping, he'd stay in his room. Finally, graduation day came...and he..." Toshinori sighed. "He fought and defeated three teachers, hospitalizing each of them, and carved 'No more Plus Ultra' onto a wall."

Midoriya sipped his tea, not quite knowing what to think. Toshinori stared deeply into his own tea. "We spent about a month trying to track him down, while, in the meantime, he was getting better and better. He rarely used his own strength anymore. He set traps, held hostages...his world had been shaken to the foundations, and...that was how he chose...to respond." Toshinori sipped his tea. "When he finally got to him, he wasn't Samuel anymore. Paladin tried teleporting him directly into a prison cell. Atrophy and the sword came back out of that portal. He'd killed Annaisha.

"We finally took him down. Firecracker...she talked to him in jail sometimes. He was given TV privileges on her account, actually. However..." Toshinori took one last sip of his tea. "He had always had problems with resentment and anger."

_"Save it for your friends."_

Toshinori sighed. "I really wish we'd managed to try and get to him early, so we could have helped him. Given him the help he needed--the help he deserved. Maybe if we had, then--" He stopped suddenly, then looked down into the reflection of his tea. "Maybe some other things would have turned out differently," he said quietly. Midoriya knew he was thinking about All for One, perhaps one of the worst villains to walk the face of the earth. Midoriya sipped his tea. 

Toshinori sighed. "Yeah. As I believe Annaisha put it, we all effed up."

Midoriya coughed loudly on his tea. "You said the F word!" 

"No, I said effed. F word _lite_."

"Not really!"

"Excuse me?" a voice called in. A young woman peeked through the door. "Er, Principal Nezu asked me to get you...Toshinori, was it?" 

"Oh. Alright. Blake, right?'

The woman nodded. 

"What's going on?" Midoriya asked, confused. "Are the cat ears your Quirk?"

Blake paled. "How did you--" 

"Sorry, it was just kind of obvious," Midoriya laughed nervously. Blake glared at him, then stepped away from the door, out of sight. 

"Don't worry about it. Just some issues we're in the process of working out," Toshinori rose and stretched. "Shouldn't leave Nezu hanging for too long, then. See ya round, Midoriya." He exited the hallway. "What's the situation?" Toshinori asked Blake. 

"From what little I understand...bad." Blake walked briskly. Then, she simply toppled. Toshinori caught her before she hit the ground, and was surprised to see a purple glow staticking around her body. "Yeah. Bad." She rose shakily. 

"From what we've managed to piece together," Nezu stated once Toshinori entered the room. "Aura and Semblance are closely related to one's soul. That much is a given. Now, the speculation. Everyone here has a duplicate in this world except Jaune Arc. Jaune Arc in this world died a while back. Now, Mr. Arc, have you had any problems?"

"No, not really," Jaune replied. "I mean, none besides general clumsiness."

"So, from what I gather, the problems the rest of you have been experiencing are related to the fact that there are now two versions of each of your souls in this dimension. Two versions of your soul, which generates your Aura and Semblance." Nezu showed a graph. "Imagine being told to give a hat to someone, but, without knowing it, there are two versions of that person in the house you go to, and you end up giving the hat to the wrong person. If I had to guess, you're having problems with Aura because some of it ends up going to the version of you from this dimension. And Miss Rose's vision is probably a memory from the Ruby Rose of this dimension."

"Are you telling me that was a memory?" Ruby asked. 

"Possibly. That's what I'd guess."

"So, what could be the long term effects of this?" Ren asked. 

"Well...I don't have the foggiest clue. It might get less bad over time, equalize a little better. Or...it might get worse."

"So we just need to figure out how to get back quickly," Weiss said. "Got it."

"Problem is, we don't know how we got here," Nora stated. "I mean, the whole black-and-red portal thing doesn't leave much to go on."

"I'm guessing it means more than you think," Toshinori asked, looking up. "Black and red? All swirly? Even circle, red eye insignia in the center?" _Please don't be right._

"Yeah. How did you know?" Yang asked. 

"Ah, shit." Toshinori sat back in his chair. "I've seen one like that before. It wasn't how his portals normally looked, but during a fight with a villain, they went all evil looking, and he didn't come back out. The villain, however, did. And he happens to be locked up in our basement."

"That's great!" Ruby cried, jumping up. "We'll get back home in no time."

"It's Atrophy."

"That's problematic," Nezu commented. 

"You can say that again," Recovery Girl added. 

"I will. That is very problematic."

"Who is Atrophy?" Ruby asked. 

"An old--a, screw it, I feel like I've told that story a dozen times today alone." He rose. "I'll call Firecracker, see if she can help me get info from him. If I'm lucky, he's in one of his less stubborn moods."

"Stop it, Metl," Embersong snapped. Her villain costume was fire, wrapped delicately around her body. She was beginning, however, to get a headache. 

"I'm tuning it!" Death Metl snapped, plucking a few strings on his guitar, lounging backwards his chair. He stopped and sat straight up as All Might and Firecracker passed. 

"Howsit going?" Metl cried, giving a peace sign. 

Firecracker looked at him. "Sorry, dude, but, uh...we're here to talk to the other guy."

Toshinori strode to where two guards were playing poker with two of the villains--Hunter and Sunscreen. The four looked at him as he said, "Sorry about the interruption, but I need to talk to Atrophy."

The guards were up in a heartbeat. "We'll continue the game in a minute," one told the two villains. 

"We better, cuz I was winning." Sunscreen began fanning herself with her hand of cards. 

"Kick me while I'm down, you useless sack of wasted space," the other guard muttered, walking over to the opposite side of the room and pulling a lever. That entire wall opened up, revealing the only villain in the room who was actually behind bars. 

Atrophy sat, his back to them, a computer on a desk in front of them. His suit was off, boots and metal pieces lying every which way on the floor. He had his right arm over the back of his sofa, missing from the elbow down. His left arm was clicking on a mouse. 

"I gotta say, the Japanese make better shows than Americans, but, on average, I've noticed that Americans generally have better video games," Samuel said. "Also, please ask someone else to do the cooking, because I could not stand that stuff you brought in earlier."

"I'll pass the message to Lunch Rush," Toshinori replied. 

The clicking stopped. Samuel sat up in his chair, arms falling in front of him. 

Toshinori pulled a chair over and sat in it. "Please leave," he told the guards and gathered villains. 

The room was vacated almost immediately. 

"It's been a while, huh?" Toshinori asked conversationally. 

"I never figured you to be a torturer, Yagi, but I see that it suits you."

Toshinori flinched. "There's something we need to ask you about," Firecracker said. 

"Yeah, but you could have just done that. No reason for the All Might to come on down to one so lowly as I." The words carried more venom than a scorpion's sting. Toshinori flinched. "You, you wanted to talk to me, because we were friends, once, a long time ago in a land far, far away."

"We're not friends; not anymore," Toshinori said. "But I did actually want to hear you say this. We came to ask about Annaisha." 

Samuel looked at the wall in front of him. "Mr Perfect?"

Toshinori chuckled. "I have a hard time believing you killed him."

"And the other reason?"

"A portal that looks like the ones we saw that day appeared in the school, dumping eight kids from another dimension here. If we don't figure out how to get them back, they could die." 

Samuel resumed his lounging posture. "Good for you. Annaisha did not die that day." 

Toshinori sucked in a deep breath. 

"Have you heard of a Grimm?" Samuel asked. "It's actually kinda funny. You see, in that other dimension, everything was created by a god of life and a god of death. The Grimm were created in jealousy by the god of death, the younger one. And the leader of the Grimm...is an immortal bitch who goes by Salem." He cocked his head. "You're wondering how I know that?"

"Yeah."

Samuel stretched out his left hand. A whitish static crackled over it. "Aura. Pretty neat stuff. While I was there, I apparently burrowed it from my doppelganger. And with it, some memories. Dunno who he was, but he knew some pretty important shit."

He looked at Toshinori. "They might actually die from staying her too long, but, from what I remember of what Salem _was_ , they might die if they return."

"Is that how you heal so fast?" Firecracker asked, leaning against the bars to his cell. He looked at her. "Comboed with my Quirk. Also, a few of those bars probably still have the structural integrity of Jell-o." 

She raised an eyebrow. "It was leeching that or the sofa," he snapped, returning his gaze to the computer, which now sported a large 'Game Over' message. 

"Thanks. Also, I kinda disagree."

Samuel looked at him. As Toshinori walked to the door, he said, "Honestly, Americans have the best shows. Better than Bleach, anyway."

"Yeah, but isn't Bleach still the best Anime?" Firecracker asked. 

Both looked at her. "Not sure it ever was in any dimension, ever," Samuel told her. Firecracker smiled at him. "Well, see you tonight at eight?"

"Eh, why not. Beats trying that boss again."

Toshinori shook his head and left. 

"Game over," Samuel muttered. "Hmph. If I had to guess, Annaisha probably ended up siding with her."

"You only say now after he left?" 

"Yeah. I still hate him, remember?"

Firecracker laughed. "And?" 

"That means they might be planning an attack. Imagine trying to win a game of chess, but your opponent's king is off the edge of the board, and is constantly returning the captured pieces back to the board."

Firecracker stiffened. 

"If you do care that much about children, get them out of here. It'll be a blood bath when those things come. Beowulves, Ursas, Deathstalkers, Nevermores..." Samuel trailed off. "Except Midoriya. He'd probably be fine."

Firecracker nodded. "I'll pass along your concerns." _Huh. He told Toshinori the facts, but none of his speculations..._ Samuel was a psychiatrist's field day. 

Unfortunately, she wasn't a psychiatrist. 

"So, you figure this Annaisha guy is probably behind it?" Yang asked. 

"Possible. I thought he was dead until ten minutes ago," Toshinori said, reclining in a chair. 

"There's another problem we ought to focus on," Midnight pointed out. The collected teachers and Huntsmen-in-training looked at her. "There are eight people who don't have files and credentials, and they all need spaces to sleep."

"Ah, shit, I hadn't thought about that," Snipe groaned, leaning back in his own chair. 

"Do we have room in the student dorms?" Ectoplasm asked. 

"Yeah, that wouldn't be suspicious. 'Here ya go. Eight heavily armed individuals sleeping in here, right after we just dumped a shit ton of villains into the school. They don't have files and credentials, that one passes out randomly, having weird visions, and they all randomly glow'." Firecracker snorted. 

"There are rooms we can put them in," Toshinori said. "Just...none too comfortable."

Ruby sighed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to--" She slumped over. 

"God dammit, not again," Firecracker said, clapping her hand to her face. 

"Actually, she appears to be pretty happy this time," Blake said, watching her face. 

_Ruby sat on a tombstone, hands clasped together. Weiss held the umbrella for her. She presumably had a look of worry on her face which Ruby could not see. Summer suddenly called out, "Where are you going?"_

_"Away," a voice replied. Aizawa._

_"Why? He was your friend, too." Summer's voice was strong, authoritative._

_"I killed him."_

_"And you think that means you get to skip out on his funeral? Ha. Fat chance of that. Get over here."_

_Footsteps. Water splashing._

_"You're Aizawa, right?" Ruby asked._

_"Yeah. Your name?"_

_"Ruby."_

_"I'm Yang." Her half-sister, standing to her right, it sounded. She'd hated Tai. Why she was here was unclear._

_"Nice to meet you."_

_More footsteps, from the right. Was Yang moving? She put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "You holding up alright?"_

_"Yeah." She paused for a moment. "I know he was a very horrible person who did horrible things. But...I'm still gonna miss him. It was still his own fault, but..." She sighed._

_"I shouldn't be here," Weiss cut in suddenly. Ruby turned to the sound of her voice. "I'm...I never even met him. And this...this isn't something an outsider like me should see. It's private..."_

_Ruby reached out and touched Weiss's arm--she'd taken a step back, it seemed. She felt her way up to Weiss's face. "Where did you get the feeling that you were an outsider?" Ruby smiled. She pulled Weiss in and hugged her. The umbrella moved out of blocking position, and rain began falling on her head. It felt nice. "You are...always welcome."_

Ruby Rose woke up, sitting up straight. She was sitting on a mattress, spread out on the floor in an office. "Ah, you're awake again," Blake commented. 

"How long was I out?" Ruby asked, rubbing her head. 

"Four hours." Blake set down a book. "It's okay. I mostly just catna--" She froze. 

Ruby flopped down on her mattress. "I just witnessed this world's Ruby going to her dad's funeral."

Blake looked at her. 

"That's messed up. I don't want to see that!" Ruby covered her face with her arm. "I don't need to know about that. About how they all coped, the arguments and make-ups they had. It's like...walking around in someone else's skin."

"Yuck." Blake lay down on her own mattress. 

"Agh. I just...I don't want to hear all the nitty-gritty aspects of this girl's life. It's an invasion of privacy!"

"I hear you." Blake frowned thoughtfully. "The rest of us are sharing souls. Actually, your Aura hasn't glitched, has it?"

"Not really. Just the visions."

"Well, it's either random chance, or something else going on." Blake yawned. "But it's late. We can try figuring it out in the morning." 

A long moment of silence. 

"Blake?"

Blake opened one eye groggily. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad I'm not an outsider. I'm glad you all accept me...and I want you to know that all of us accept you, too."

Blake closed her eyes. She breathed in and out. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Cinder Fall hated rain. Water ran down the sides of the window pane like drops of clear blood. She leaned back in her bed, thinking. Sighing, she got up and exited her room. She wore her more modest wear--pants, unbuttoned jacket, and a simple sash tied around her chest. She walked into the hallway outside her room and peeked out another window, leaning against the window sill. 

"Trouble sleeping?" She looked up. Annaisha strode into the room, gray sweater over an absurdly jacked torso. He wasn't wearing his helmet--his graying hair was tied back neatly. 

She looked back out the window. "Yeah."

"Cinder, was it?" She nodded. "Hmm. Rain has always made me feel melancholy. Perhaps it is the same with you?" 

_Why is this guy trying to chat? It's 3 in the morning! What the F is wrong with him?_ "Something like that."

Annaisha leaned against the wall. "For most people, it symbolizes a new beginning. I always thought that if it was a beginning, then it was also an end." Annaisha looked at her. "I wonder, what do you think ends when it rains?"

"Rain is cold and wet, nothing more, nothing less," Cinder replied. "Just enough to make me uncomfortable, but not enough to actually do anything."

"Ah." Annaisha chuckled. 

"What's so funny?" Cinder snapped. 

"Sorry...just...we go to war. We join forces with a demon army. You have magical power greater than almost anyone in either of our dimensions. And yet...you are not happy because you are wet." He laughed. 

Cinder blushed, though she wasn't sure why. "Yeah, well, I just don't like it, kay?"

Annaisha smiled at her. _Gods, I hate this guy_. "So...here's another question."

"Full of those tonight, aren't you?" Cinder returned her gaze to the window. 

"What do you plan to do when you're done?" he asked. 

Cinder didn't answer. 

"I haven't found anyone who has answered that question, by the way." He looked out the window as well. A raindrop hit the window, and slowly began sliding down the center. "Tyrian and Arthur gave me looks, Hazel just glared at me, and Salem herself..." He smiled fondly. "It looks like I actually bothered her."

"I'll go home."

He looked at her in surprise. Cinder lay her hand on the window. The raindrop on the other side froze into ice. Ice grew across the window in snowflake patterns. "My parents and close family are in Vacuo. I never really had the necessary power to do anything to help. Now...I can control the fucking weather. I can throw fireballs, and I am more than a match for the toughest Huntsmen. Another year or two, working for Salem, and I can return home to help my family."

"Huh. Lofty goals, but..." He cocked his head. "Hmm." He rose and stretched. "I am going to try and get a few more hours of sleep before work starts. You ought to do the same. And...I hope that conversation helped." He left, strides long. His sword leapt out of the umbrella stand and he caught it, opening a portal to his bedroom. 

How the sword jumped out, Cinder didn't want to know. She simply looked out the window and thought of rain. 

"Wonder what we're going to be doing today," Kirishima said as a small group students walked. 

"Probably something equally easy," Bakugo replied smoothly. 

"Didn't you get sued by your villain?" Toru asked. 

"I still don't know how all of that happened," Tokoyami interjected. "It was...odd."

"YOOOOOOOO!" Death Metl slid out from behind a corner, heavy metal blaring. He pointed one accusatory finger at Kirishima. 

Aizawa walked out beside him. 

"Umm...aren't they supposed to be locked up most of the time?" Momo asked. 

"Schooling time!" Death Metl pointed at her. Mount Lady walked out behind them. 

"Whatever. Why am I here again?" she asked. 

"As backup, and so we don't get any more bad publicity," Aizawa replied. "Anyway, today--" A gunshot rang out. A bullet went through Aizawa's back and hit the ground in front of him. He leapt away quickly. "Move!" he cried. 

"An attack?" Momo wondered aloud. 

Her question was answered by the swirling violet vortex. From it stepped a young woman in a red cape, carrying a large gun in one hand. Behind her stepped out two figures, a man in knight's armor, and a young woman in armor. 

"Hello," she said, smiling sweetly. 

"Ruby, what are you--" 

The tall man pulled out a sword and swung it, opening around a dozen other portals in the area around him. From the portals crawled pitch black wolves with red eyes, and white bone-like masks over their faces, in addition to the heavily armed masked men, most of whom had animal parts--ears, tails, and even horns. From a portal right next to the first three came a woman in a red dress that came down to just below her hips. Beside her came a young man in gray and a man in an overcoat, bowler hat, and cane. 

"Ah, more children," the latter stated. "Cause that's what we always end up fighting."

"Can it, Torchwick," the woman snapped. 

Bakugo lunged into the air, shooting fire at the intruders. "Die, you damn nerds!"

The young woman in white armor waved a rapier, and a white glyph appeared in the air in front of the fire. The fire dispersed harmlessly upon touching it. The armored woman waved the rapier again, and the glyph turned orange, and spit the fire back out at Bakugo. 

"Use your own overpowered attacks, don't shoot mine back at me!" Bakugo snapped furiously, dodging backwards. 

"I am Ruby Rose," the first woman stated. "This is Weiss, and this is Paladin. Those over there are Cinder, Mercury, and Roman. And this..." From a new portal came a giant black gauntlet. "...is my sister, Wan." The hulking monstrosity walked out of the portal, part on her legs, part on her knuckles. She snarled furiously. 

"We are here to destroy this school."


	6. The Battle of UA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life or death combat begins. One mistake could mean death, and the hulking Wan does not plan on going down easily.

The students gathered in a close group.

Aizawa clutched his bullet wound as the villains closed in.

"Who all is here?" Aizawa asked.

"We've got Iida, Bakugo, Kirishima, Momo, me, and Mineta," Toru replied. "Plus you, Mount Lady, and Death Metl."

"I do so love it when I have the numbers advantage," Roman Torchwick commented, pointing his cane at them. The top part lifted up, and he fired a missile at them.

"Move!" Aizawa cried.

Ruby, Blake, and Nezu strode across the green lawn. "This is driving me crazy," Ruby told him. "I had another one. This time it was of Ruby's first date with Weiss." She gave Nezu a suffering look. "I don't want to know all of that!"

"Let's just hope that poor girl never finds out that half her private life was put up for display," Blake replied. She stopped as a figure jumped in front of them.

"Is that...Emerald?" Ruby asked.

"The school's under attack!" Emerald cried.

"What?"

She rushed over. "The school's under attack. Roman Torchwick with an army of Grimm and the White Fang, and a bunch of really strong villains."

"Wha--Emerald, how did you--what--"

"I can explain afterwards," Emerald replied. "But right now, if you want to save your school, you need to get everyone over there."

"You've got a tail," Blake said, stepping to the side, drawing her weapons. Everyone looked at the shadowy figure that had leapt down.

White overcoat over black undershirt. Black pants, no sleeves, but a curious ribbon tied a round her left arm, and a White Fang mask over her face. She pulled out Gambol Shroud. Blake's weapon.

Blake's eyes narrowed. "Ruby, go give backup to everyone in danger. I'll handle her."

"But, Blake--"

"Go. I've got this." She turned to Emerald. "You get out of here too. Go help."

The newcomer cocked her head, eyeing Blake. The two began circling each other as the rest ran off.

"I was actually hear for the turncoat," the strange figure mused. Blake's voice. "But I'll settle for this new development."

"You're the Blake of this world," Blake stated.

"Oh-ho. So I am." She took a step forward. "But, to avoid confusion, you can call me Fang."

Blake glared.

Fang removed her mask. She was smiling. "Now, I wonder...are you as good at combat as I am? Do we use the same style of combat? Or can either of us even hurt the other? If one of us gets hurt, will the other get hurt as well?"

"You're crazy," Blake whispered.

Fang shrugged with a smile, then lunged. A few quick lunges, that Blake parried. Then Blake attacked. Fang propelled herself backwards, leaving a shadow clone in her place.

Same Semblance? That's not good. Fang attacked, using her Quirk to launch herself forward, and slashed three times in round circles. Blake jumped back. Fang paused, then traced a finger along her cheek, and licked the blood she found there. Blake felt her own cheek.

"Oh. We do get hurt if we hurt the other." She grinned maniacally. "I wonder how far that can go."

She lunged again, attacking viciously. Blake used her Semblance for a quick escape, then leapt and landed on the roof of a nearby building--she guessed the dormitories. Fang followed her up there, laughing as she opened fire. Blake ran out of the way as roof tiles exploded. Blake barrel-rolled ahead of the gunfire, and fired a single shot. It hit Fang in the shoulder. Pain immediately seized Blake's shoulder. She clutched her now bleeding shoulder. Fang strode across the roof, image of grace, despite bleeding profusely.

"Oh boy. It looks like we don't heal together, do we?" The cut on her cheek had disappeared. Completely. Blake stiffened as Fang climbed the slanted roof. "I am going to enjoy killing you, little tiger." A small disk hit the roof at her feet. "Eh? What's that, a dinner--" She screamed out in pain as lightning struck and crackled through her veins. She tripped and slid of the roof, hitting the ground with a thud and a crack.

Blake was relieved to find that only some wounds were shared between the two of them.

"Please tell me I hit the evil one," Kaminari called out. "Oh my God, is she dead?"

"You did hit the evil one. And hopefully, yes." A bullet hit the roof near the edge where Blake had moved. She sighed, then leapt off, landing nimbly near Kaminari.

"The school is under attack," she said. "Terrorist." She looked at Fang, who's broken body was fixing itself, bones snapping back together. "With some new friends." An explosion went off, a pillar of smoke rising into the air. "That's over by the actual school," Kaminari stated.

"Then that's where I'm going," Blake said, leaping away. Kaminari looked after her, then turned to Fang.

She wasn't there.

"Oh, no."

Death Metl's fist rammed into the inhuman terrorist's face, breaking the mask and, most likely, the poor fool's nose. The masked goon went down. Melt turned and grabbed the wolf monster by the throat, then rammed it into the ground. The corpse disappeared into black smoke.

Metl punched the other wolf that had tried sneaking up behind him without turning around.

"I don't like that guy," Ruby said. "Wan." She whistled, then pointed right at Death Metl. "Fetch."

The hulking Wan gave a roar that put grizzly bears to shame, then lunged forward. The gauntlets fired off bullets, using the recoil to propel Wan forward. Metl jumped aside as a fist as big round a his waist slammed into the ground.

"That can't be all fist," he said. "Especially considering the rest of your proportions."

"RAAAAAAAGH!" The two hands clapped together, right where Metl had been seconds before he'd moved.

"Don't want to find out how tankable those blows are," he muttered. Daaaamn. With use of my Quirk, I could probably do this. I'll just have to play it safe.

He threw a punch, ramming his fist into Wan's stomach. He felt a twinge in his wrist, and quickly realized that Wan's stomach was muscle all the way to the opposite side. Wan snarled at him. "Heh heh. Hi."

Wan's fist collided with his face, power slamming him into the ground, the impact leaving him in the center of a crater with a broken arm and several broken ribs.

"Ow," he groaned. Wan lifted her fist again. Kirishima jumped up and punched her across the face. She snarled, then tried punching him. With a startled cry, Kirishima jumped back. The fist hit the ground with the force of a bomb, blowing up dirt and rock into the air. Kirishima punched the fist. It didn't do much. He jumped back as Wan attacked again. A blast of fire hit Wan in the back. She spun around to face Bakugo, who, even without his own gauntlets, was trying to kill everything within five feet of him. Black smoke filled the air around him--he'd killed more than his fair share of wolves.

"Die!" he bellowed, throwing more fire. "Die--you--damned--nerd!" Wan charged forward, ignoring the fire, and attacked. Bakugo blasted himself out of the way, sidestepping and jumping back, landing beside Kirishima and Metl. "Grrr...that thing doesn't seem to care much about our attacks." He stopped. "But I figure that all of those tubes and wires are important."

"Uh, Bakugo, those look like life support," Kirishima pointed out. "Taking those out could kill her."

Bakugo grimaced. "AAAAH! Dammit, why must everything be so complicated?"

"Not taking those out could kill the rest of us," Metl pointed out. "Also, we don't even know if they're important."

Bakugo aimed carefully as Wan charged forward. "Do I take the shot? It could take her down, but..."

"Ten percent..."

Aizawa looked up from his own combat. "Midoriya, NO!"

"Detroit Smash!" Midoriya leapt from the and kicked Wan. Wan was blasted backwards, landing in the dirt at the feet of Ruby. "Everyone alright?" Midoriya called out.

"Not really, but close enough," Metl called out, raising his good arm.

"Get away from her! Her Quirk allows her to double all damage she takes back on her opponents!" Aizawa called out.

Wan rose. She now sported a large bruise on the side of her face. She strode forward, walking on her knuckles. "Oops," Midoriya muttered. "I hit her with ten percent, so...now she can throw out twenty-percent of one of All Might's punches?"

Wan lunged, her fist hitting the ground as Midoriya jumped aside. Sure enough, the crater was much bigger this time round. Wan rose, snarling. "My hit didn't really seem to affect her much...and a bunch of little attacks won't do any real good either...even if I hit her at full power, it might not take her down. Besides that, I don't want to get my legs into the same state as my arms...given all of this, there's only really one course of action. RUN AWAY!" He quickly leapt out of the way as Wan slammed her fist into the ground where Midoriya had been. Midoriya took the moment to run away from Wan. Wan took the moment to chase.

"They can see me," Toru whispered. "They...they know where I am!" Iida turned, to see all of the nearby wolves focusing their gazes on Toru.

"Calm down!" Iida told her. She pushed him back, taking a step back. "No, this, I can't..."

A wolf lunged. Iida rushed forward, but was too slow. But the red blur carrying a scythe was fast enough. Ruby rose to her feet as the two halves of the wolf disappeared into smoke.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'm...I'm standing over here," Toru replied. "And, yeah, I think so."

"Ack!" Ruby jumped back. "Okay, that's just freaky."

Weiss landed beside her. "We brought backup," she said as Yang and JNPR jumped over.

"Whoa! Ruby, is that you over there?" Yang exclaimed.

"Eh? Oh, gods, that's freakier." Ruby stared at her doppelganger. "Blake!" She jumped over and hugged her friend. "You're hurt!"

"Ow, that shoulder has a bullet hole in it!" Blake winced. "Listen. That woman...Fang...she had two Quirks." Ruby looked at her. "What?"

Blake rubbed her shoulder. "She had my shadow-clones. She also had very fast healing. She could heal bullet wounds within a minute." Blake raised a hand, displaying two fingers. "Sound familiar?"

"That Eclipse guy?" Yang asked.

"Wasn't he dead?" Ruby asked.

"Fuck," Aizawa said. Everyone looked at him. "He...isn't actually dead. Actually, he was quite healthy last I saw him."

There was a long silence. "Then why the hell did you get so mad when you found me looking him up?" Ruby cried.

"That's my personal life you were looking up!" Aizawa cried.

"It was a Wikipedia page!" Ruby snapped.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Midoriya cried out, landing with a thud on the ground beside them. "That Wan thing is big...and with that double-damage Quirk, you can't really attack her..." He rose as Wan roared.

"Double damage?"

"She can double all damage dealt to her," Aizawa said. "When I last saw her, Yang was...well, six inches shorter and more than able to put together coherent words." He looked at Wan. "She was a bloody genius."

"That's me in this messed-up world?" Yang asked. "What happened to her?"

"What are you talking about? Who are you? What is going on?" Iida burst out with finally.

"Er, we can explain later," Ruby said. "Wan, was it? Well, she's big, so she can take a lot of hits."

"The best strategy involves being able to hit her the most while having her hit the least," Jaune interjected. "Er, could you freeze her?"

"Ice flower!" Ruby called out. Weiss spun her rapier around, creating glyphs in the air in front of Ruby's sniper. Wan, however, launched herself forward fast enough to where Ruby didn't have time to fire. Her fist passed through empty air and rose petals as everyone scattered.

"AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Ruby screamed, clutching her face. The right half of her face had been ripped off. Her Aura crackled, sparking up what little protective energy was left. "Son of a...bitch!"

Wan roared angrily, flexing her bloodied fingers, looking around for her escaped prey. Ruby jumped back, glaring at Wan. "Ruby!" Yang called out. She then turned to Wan. "Don't touch my sister!" Her gauntlet cannon balled her forward, slingshoting her fist into Wan's stomach. Force rippled through Wan.

Wan didn't move.

There was a long silence. Wan growled. "Uh...oh...no...shiiit..." Wan grabbed Yang and slammed her into the ground. Roaring, she lifted her fist into the air and punched down. And again.

"Stop it!" Ruby cried, firing a shot at Wan. Wan ignored it, and punched down on more time. This time, however, Yang caught the blow.

"Never touch my hair. Never touch my bike. And never, ever, touch my sister!" Yang threw Wan's hand back and delivered a fierce blow to Wan's chin. The recoil from the blow shattered the ground around her, and the mouthpiece Wan wore cracked. Wan hurled backwards, sliding across the ground, a piece of broken metal landing beside her.

Yang panted, bruised, her Aura not even flickering. She was covered in dirt and blood. She raised one fist, and punched it into the air.

Death Metl rose. "Well, not gonna let her one up me." He straightened his back.

"We can do this," Toru whispered.

"Well, duh!" Bakugo snapped. He grinned, leaning forward. "Come on! Let's get 'em!"

"Well, the brute's down," Torchwick commented. "Also, what is Red doing here?" All of them turned to Paladin. 

"What?" he asked. "I didn't do it."

"Well, whoever did it, you're going to undo it," Torchwick snapped. "I'm tired of being beaten by absurdly overqualified children."

Cinder growled. "I'll handle them. Call Adam." She glared at Paladin. "You better find out where they came from."

She jumped, landing in the center of the battlefield, then casually deflected a bullet from Ruby. Ruby fired off several more shots, Cinder deflecting each of them. 

"Hey, that's cheating!" Ruby called out. Snorting, Cinder threw a fireball at Ruby, who jumped away. Ruby glared at her. "Why are you doing this?" she called out. Cinder created a bow and arrow, firing off a barrage, which Ruby avoided. "Come on! Think this through! This isn't going to achieve anything!" Cinder gritted her teeth. "Stop talking and start fighting!" she cried. 

"Wan!" The other Ruby had made her way to where Wan lay. Wan gave a weak moan. Ruby sat down next to her. "Wan? Wan!" 

Everyone stopped, all eyes on her. 

"Please don't tell me it's dying," Cinder whispered. The first Ruby looked away from her doppelganger to look at Cinder. Cinder closed her eyes as Ruby's screams of anguish rang out. 

Then there was another person beside her. A man in a black lab coat, undershirt, and jeans. He wore three scarves, and a featureless black mask over his face. Fang appeared beside him, flopping down on the ground, looking stunned. 

"Now, now," the newcomer said. "Wan is fine. Nothing was broken but a small piece of machinery. She's nothing more than stunned. She'll be fine."

Ruby sniffled. 

"Who are you?" Torchwick demanded. "And we're did you come from? What is going on?"

"I don't believe we've been introduced." The figure rose. "I am Taiyang Xiao Long. Most people call me Eclipse." His coat rippled, though there was no breeze. He eyed the surrounding area. "Hmm. You have taken a rather sound beating, haven't you?"

"I guarantee you it is his fault," Torchwick said, pointing at Paladin. 

"Excuse me," the other returned. Paladin grabbed Torchwick roughly by the shoulders and shoved him aside. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Bullets do tend to do that, don't they?" Eclipse stated dryly. He clasped his hands behind his back. Then, one of his scarves moved. Not slowly. It shot out, extending and growing, moving fast, and slashed open Midoriya's arm before retracting back. Eclipse let the blood drip into a vial, which he had fetched from an inner pocket. "Ah. You're pretty strong. You're Quirk will do nicely."

"Agh! What did you do?" Midoriya cried, clutching his injured arm. 

"Eclipse," Ruby whispered. Cinder glared at her. 

"Well, time to pull back for a bit," Eclipse said. His coat flared out, growing and encompassing the entire field. Wind rushed, and darkness fell. All light was blotted out. 

"Ack! What the fu--" Cinder's exclamation of surprise was cut off half-way through. Ruby stiffened, swinging her scythe against the black. 

Then it was gone. Along with the entire White Fang, all of the wolves, and all the villains, leaving the defenders sitting tiredly in a broken field. 

"Is it over?" Toru asked. 

Aizawa rose, clutching his side. "No. Not in the slightest."

Recovery Girl sighed, tying the cast around Yang's stomach. "Sometimes I wish people could go through a single week without anyone getting horribly injured," she muttered. 

"On the bright side, I think I've repaid all my karma," Death Metl stated, lying on his back. 

"Good for you?" Kirishima said, not knowing how to respond. 

"You're sister's mostly fine," Recovery Girl told Yang. "I don't know how, but after I used my Quirk on her, the skin regrew in seconds. It was remarkable. However..." She paused. "The eye isn't growing back." 

Yang flinched, looking away. "She's taking a nap, regaining some lost energy. Also, she sort of passed out. I don't know if she's just tired or it was a vision." Done with Yang, she turned back to Aizawa. "So, he's back?"

Aizawa nodded. 

"I don't understand what's going on," Weiss stated. 

"I'm not sure anyone does," Toshinori replied. Class 1-A, Team RWBY, and Team JNPR, as well as most of the staff and the pro-heroes had gathered in hospital. 

"To sum it up," Nezu interrupted. "Paladin's Quirk appears also to allow him access to travel between dimensions. For some reason, he brought these eight young people here into this world. He also appears to have joined up with a crime syndicate from their world, and they joined up with the villain Eclipse, who is not as dead as he was reported to be."

"Who even is Eclipse?" Midoriya asked. "I've never heard the name."

"No one has in a long time," Aizawa replied. Everyone turned to him. "After I thought I killed him, he came back later. Heavily wounded, barely alive. He only had one thing to say: he was dying. He wanted to spend his last days alive with his family." He sighed, looking off, remembering past days. "His request was granted, though he was under constant surveillance. Eventually, we all, him included, realized he was not actually dying, and was getting better. I guess it didn't really matter to any of us. He stayed at home, helping his two daughters however he could. Eventually..." He paused. "I guess he'd finally lived off his life sentence. He came to talk to me the other day. Mostly just reminiscing, but...I feel like he had a plan." He turned back around. "I don't know what he's planning, or why he's suddenly started this back up. But I know it can't be good."

"The last time I fought someone with multiple Quirks, it was All for One," Toshinori added. "How many does Eclipse have, exactly?"

"He started with just the ability to snuff out nearby light sources. But in one of his experiments, he killed his friend and gained the ability to teleport through shadows. He eventually found out how to do it without killing the person he wanted the Quirk of. But that was not it at first. Now, he's got super-healing. He found a size-manipulation Quirk somewhere, and used that with a metal-manipulation Quirk to create those scarves--they're actually solid steel. Let's see--lightning reflexes. A bunch of others. I don't know them all." He turned to Toshinori. "He does not have the raw power that All For One did. All For One had multiple lifetimes, he only has one. But he is a mastermind. He is a devious tactician, brilliant inventor, and an inspiring leader. He's a genius. He's also cautious--he would not start any fight that he's not a hundred percent sure he could win. In addition, when All For One used his Quirk, it left most people like the Nomus. As Blake here saw, Fang wasn't hindered."

"Yeah," Blake agreed. "Her main Semb--Quirk appears to be the same as mine--she can create shadows of herself and leave them to take the hit for her." Blake paused. "But, coupled with her healing, you've got someone who can evade most blows and just ignore the rest." She stopped. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. When one of us hit the other, both of us took the hit." 

There was a long pause. 

"Wait. If you hit your...doppelganger, right?...you also got hurt?" Comet asked. 

"Uh-huh."

"But when Wan hit me, she didn't get hurt," Yang pointed out. "She broke multiple ribs."

"Hmm." Toshinori scratched his chin. "Didn't you mention some sort of forcefield?"

"Yeah. Aura. Manifestation of our souls and all," Nora explained. 

"And hasn't it been malfunctioning?" Toshinori pointed out. "To get to the point, was it on or off when you fought Fang?"

"Off."

"That might have been it," Toshinori finished. 

"If only we had some way to test that," Midoriya commented. 

Comet sighed dramatically. "I should probably mention something." She removed her mask. "My actual name happens to be Nora Valkyrie, and I don't actually think that's a coincidence."

"Whoa," Nora said. "I am jacked in this world."

"We could use this for any testing that needs to be done," Nezu stated. "Comet, how have you been feeling lately?"

"Better then ever, actually," Comet replied. "Better than I should be feeling, all things considered."

"Really? Cause I've been feeling really badly, physically speaking," Nora stated. 

"Perhaps your Aura is leaking over to her?" Ren suggested. "We've already established that two copies of the same soul could cause problems. What if the problem is Nora's Aura leaking over to Comet?"

"Ruby's been having memories leak over from this world," Blake said. "Comet, have you had any weird dreams lately?"

Comet paused. "Er, one, but, uh..."

"Did it seem like a memory?" 

"...Yeah." She was blushing. 

"What memory was it?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"..."

There was a long, awkward silence. "Now I'm curious," Nora stated. 

"Oh no," Ren said, putting his head in his hands. 

"Yeaaaaaah. It was...ahem...Saturday."

"Hey, didn't Ren and Nora go out on some errand last Saturday?" Jaune asked. He stopped. "Oh."

"Come to think of it." Nezu put his head in his chin. "Ruby told me that one of her visions was of the Ruby and Weiss of this world on a date. It could be that moments of intimacy--when the soul is in deep emotional feelings--make the soul more receptive, and thus that could explain some of the visions." 

"But shouldn't the rest of us be having visions?" Pyrrha asked. 

"Hmm. Ruby in this world has not had a quiet life," Aizawa said quietly. "She has lead a life of struggles and pain. If strong emotions are involved, she has had plenty of opportunities."

"I...didn't exactly have an 'easy' childhood," Nora admitted. 

Comet didn't say anything. Toshinori looked at her. "So, raise your hand if you had a difficult childhood, I guess," he said. 

Everyone looked at him. 

"Probably not the best way to go about that," Aizawa told him. 

"Is there any real point in trying to figure all this out?" Blake asked. "I mean, the guy who can send us home...this Paladin guy...he's a villain. Nothing anyone else can do will send us home. So there really isn't any reason to figuring out the nuances of interdimensional travel, is there?'

"It's a long shot, but if I managed to get into Eclipse's lab, I could maybe take some of his Quirk grafting tech," Aizawa said. "I know what it looks like. Couple that with some of Paladin's DNA--hair, blood, and so on--we could use that to send you home. However, it could be very bad for whoever uses the Quirk. Take a look at Wan if you want clarification."

No one spoke. 

"Cinder had plans to use that tech to graft Paladin's Quirk onto others, so they wouldn't be limited to just one person who can use the portals," Emerald finally said. She sat silently in the corner of the room. She looked up to meet everyone's gaze. "I don't know what happened, but I know it went poorly. According to Ruby, some Quirks don't graft well. If I had to guess, interdimensional travel isn't something your body is okay with just suddenly being able to do."

"I can understand that," Midoriya muttered. "Aside from that, the physics behind this are really broken. How exactly is someone supposed to just open up a portal through the dimensional boundaries? Are they just really weak? If so, I don't like the thought that the dimension I live in having weak boundaries, like living in a house with holes in the walls. It really doesn't sound too safe..."

"Dammit, Deku, stop creeping everyone out!" Bakugo snapped. 

Midoriya stopped, realizing that everyone was staring at him. "Uh..."

"He does that," Kirishima said. "You get used to it."

"Right," Weiss answered. "Um...isn't it very late now? I feel like no one is going to be doing any traveling if we don't get some sleep."

"She has a point," Toshinori said. "Everyone, on to bed. Tomorrow, we can try sorting the rest out." 

Kirishima stretched. "Yeah, rest is an idea I can get behind." The UA students filtered out of the room slowly, some chattering, most silent. Toshinori looked at the remaining teachers and the Beacon Huntsmen. "Blake, you, Yang, and Ruby are going to be staying in the hospital tonight. The rest of you are probably going to sleep where you slept last night. And Emerald..." He paused. "...I'll see if I can try finding another sleeping bag for you." He left the room at that. Emerald looked down at the ground. 

Comet sighed. "Take care." She rose, stretched, and left the room, putting her mask back on. 

_Nora smiled happily at Ren. The busy Tokyo streets flashed by in the background. Ren sighed. "Fine. I'll pay."_

_Nora laughed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I'm only making so much money right now." They began walking. "Paying money for two people at a restaurant is a bit out of my league."_

_Ren stopped as they reached a turn. He turn and looked Nora in the eyes and kissed her. "I don't care about money. As long as I get to be with you, that's all I need." Nora smiled at him. For a few blissful moments, the world was perfect._

_"Ren? What...who is that woman?"_

Comet sat in a tree, legs stretched out, face buried in her arms, sobbing quietly. It hadn't been long enough for her be fine with that would being dug back up. Ren and Nora in the other world were doing fine. That Ren seemed to appreciate what he had. She curled up into a ball. 

"Excuse me," a voice called up. "You seemed upset earlier, so I came to see if you were okay." 

She looked down at Lie Ren, who stood gazing up at her. Her hair was messed up, her mask was off, and her face covered in tears. Fury rose at being caught so vulnerable--she had shoved down the anger, the bitterness, the resentment, the sorrow on that street corner. Why should she be dredging it all up again? 

"What's it to you?" she snapped back bitterly. 

Ren gazed at her a long moment. "I saw someone whom I thought could use help, and I went to help them. Are you saying I shouldn't have?"

Comet stopped, then crawled back behind the leaves of the tree. _Please leave,_ she thought. She couldn't do this right now. She had to much on her plate to be forced to deal with this. She had rent to pay, she had electric bills to pay, she had the lawsuit to deal with...

The leaves rustled, and Ren climbed up into the tree next to her. She curled up into herself. 

"Do you need anything?" Ren asked. 

"Fuck you," Comet muttered into her sleeves. 

Ren stopped. Then he turned around and started to climb down. "I'm sorry," Comet burst out. Ren stopped and looked at her. "It's just...I dated the you of this world for a while. A full year round. Then, one day, while we were going out for lunch, we ran into his other girlfriend." She clenched her fists, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

"That must have been hard for you," Ren replied. 

"I punched him."

_"Uh..." Ren backed away, standing in between the two women. Comet looked at him, befuddled._

_"What's going on?" she asked. "Ren, are you--have you been cheating on me?"_

_There was a long silence. "Ren, tell me this isn't true!" the other woman demanded._

"We stood on the side of the road, and I punched him. He got hit by a car. Broke multiple ribs. Sued me for it." She gritted her teeth.

Ren put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to go through that," he said. 

"Still going through it," she answered. "That was about a week ago. I barely make enough money to pay for rent and electricity and food. He sued me for a hundred thousand..." She sighed, curling deeper into herself. Ren leaned over and sat next to her. 

"Sounds like a jerk," Nora commented. Comet looked up. "How long have you been here?"

"The whole time. I suggested coming out to comfort you!"

Ren nodded. 

_Fuck._ Bad enough to let her guard down in front of one person, and two was way worse. "Ah, crap." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm a right mess, aren't I?"

"Trust me, you could have it worse," Nora commented. 

"I can't see any way for my life to be worse," Comet replied. 

"My home was destroyed by a Grimm when I was very young," Ren told her. "And not just a Beowulf, or an Ursa. A specific Grimm." He looked away. "I wait for the day when I can see that thing again, and take it down. Until then, I curse the Knucklavee and train until I can take it in a fight."

Nora nodded. "Mm-hmm."

Comet blinked. "Well, I guess I could be off worse. Doesn't do anything to help with my current situation, though."

Nora punched her shoulder. "Keep going strong. You can do it."

Comet wiped fresh tears from her eyes, then she grabbed them both and embraced them in a hug. 

"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you."


	7. Friends to Foes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What makes a friend?

Ruby rose and stretched. She was lying on a hospital bed. Blinking, she remembered she only had one eye to blink with. She felt the bandages that wrapped around half her face. 

"Morning," Yang said. She sat in a chair beside Ruby's bed, leaning back, clearly exhausted. 

"Morning, Yang," Ruby responded. She surveyed the room. It was large and mostly empty. "So, how long have you been here?" 

"Around an hour." 

Ruby looked at the clock beside her bed. "Yang, it's seven in the morning. How much sleep did you get?"

"Couldn't." Yang rubbed her eyes. Ruby noted that they were red and puffy. 

"Have you been crying?" Ruby asked. 

"I've been worried." Yang leaned forward. "How are you feeling?" 

"Fine."

Yang heaved a sigh of relief, leaning backwards. "And your face?"

Ruby massaged the bandaged side of her face. "Surprisingly good, considering the fact that I lost half of it yesterday."

"Three days."

"Pardon?"

"The battle was three days ago," Yang explained. "All the students resumed their classes. Death Metl, I think he's still resting. Oh, and we had a loooong chat with Emerald. Turns out, she worked with Torchwick."

Ruby got up off the bed. "Yang, while I'm kinda curious to know what happened, I think I'm going to have to hear it from someone else. You need rest."

Yang nodded. Ruby helped her into the bed, where Yang fell heavily. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Trust me, I am too, and that you are also okay." Ruby smiled at her. "Now get some rest, so you stay that way."

She left the room only to have an old voice say, "And I figured you'd be getting up soon." Ruby turned to face Recovery Girl, sitting in a chair that she'd spun around to face Ruby. "You feeling well?" 

"Perfectly fine, though kinda freaked out that the world now looks 50% smaller," Ruby answered, gesturing towards the bandages. 

"Those will come off tomorrow, but I'm afraid that it won't fix the vision," Recovery Girl told her. 

Ruby sighed, sitting in the nearest chair. "Mind catching me up on everything that's happened while I've been out?"

"Not at all. After the battle, Emerald told everything she knew--most of it, unknown even to you girls. Apparently, the Grimm of your world work for someone called Salem. Salem wants to build a special arena in this world designed so she can teleport anyone into it and have them die. And apparently, she also has a penchant for destroying everything she can see, so, of course, she wants to destroy our world, too. So she sends her flunkies in, someone called Cinder Fall, with the aid of Paladin. Cinder brings her pawns, Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. They all team up with Eclipse."

"Whoa, hold on a minute," Ruby said, holding up a hand. "What...Salem? Leader of the Grimm? The Grimm have a leader?"

"According to Emerald, yes." Recovery Girl sat back in her chair. "Since you fell asleep, classes started up. According to Aizawa, Eclipse likes playing it safe, wouldn't attack so soon after that failure. And of course, that means that the students don't have anything better to do, so classes started up again. Oh, and Comet is this world's version of Nora."

"Hmm..." Ruby considered that. "That's a lot of information to process." She rose. "I'm going to go find my team."

"Be careful," Recovery Girl told her. "And find someone to help you find your way around, so you don't get lost!"

"Okay!" 

Ruby opened the door and walked out. "Hmm..." She looked up and down the hallway, then looked out a nearby window. 

The UA building was massive, and the hospital wing was put on one of the highest floors. "Really high up. Got it." Ruby frowned at her reflection. "Got to stop talking to myself."

"Probably a wise idea," a voice came. Toshinori Yagi was walking down the hallway, a paper bag in his hands. "You're up."

"Yeah." Ruby turned to him. "Oh. Do you know where I can find my team?"

"Hmm..." Toshinori thought about that. "Down that hallway, second door on the left. That's where they've been sleeping, so unless they went off on some errand, they're there."

"Thanks." Ruby dashed down the hallway, rose petals falling to the ground. 

"You better sweep these up!" Toshinori called after her. "They stick, and they're itchy, and a pain to get rid of!"

Ruby knocked on the door. "Come in," a voice called out. Ruby entered what appeared to be an old storage room to find Weiss and Blake in an intense game of cards. Over in the corner Jaune read a comic, Nora had flopped over onto the ground, and Ren was making pancakes. Pyrrha sat croslegged, eyes closed, and Emerald sat next to her, head buried in her knees. Everyone but her looked up as Ruby entered. 

"You're awake!" Weiss cried, throwing her hand of cards to the ground and jumping up. 

"How are you feeling?" Blake asked, gently putting her hand of cards back on top of the deck. 

"Fine. I told Yang to get some rest." Ruby closed the door behind her. "How have you two been holding up?"

"Alright. There hasn't really been anything to do, and Nezu introduced us to something called Uno. I am apparently an expert at it." Weiss put her hand on her chest proudly.

"She lost three times in a row by five or more cards," Blake corrected. 

Weiss flinched. "Well, I, uh--"

"I'm getting into some of the comics of this world," Jaune said. "Having trouble cause it's backwards, but, hey, the story's good. And Pyrrha...actually, I don't know what she's doing." Ruby walked over to her and tapped Pyrrha on the shoulder. Pyrrha didn't move. "Uh, Pyrrha?" 

Pyrrha's brow wrinkled, then she opened one eye and glared at Ruby. "What?"

"Um..." Ruby backed away from her. "What are you doing?"

Pyrrha sighed. "I was trying to meditate. I've been thinking a lot on this soul-cross-over thing, and thought that might lead to something." She glared at Ruby. "Maybe I might have had I not been interrupted."

"Um...sorry?"

Pyrrha paused. "Um...I'm sorry, too? I don't know where that came from..."

"It looks like it did go somewhere," Weiss said, sitting back down and picking up the dropped cards. She shuffled the deck. 

"Yeah. I guess if we meet Pyrrha in this world, and--" Ruby toppled over sideways. 

"Oh, yeah," Blake said. "I forgot about that."

"Now, then." Weiss pointed an angry finger at Blake. "Now is the game I take you!"

"Probably not, but I've got nothing better to do." Blake drew her cards. 

Pyrrha sat back, leaning against the wall. "That was too weird."

"Yeah, it kind of was." Weiss surveyed her hand with a grimace, then selected a green 5 to play. "Ha. Beat that."

Blake put down a green draw 2 cards. As Weiss forlornly drew her cards, Blake said, "Honestly, too much weird stuff has been going on here lately, so I'm not even that surprised."

"I mean, we fought an alternate version of Yang just three days ago," Jaune added, looking up from his comic. "Ruby in this world is a supervillain, and Blake never stopped being a terrorist."

"Ahem." Blake glared at him. 

"Uh, sorry."

Blake slapped down a skip turn. "I just feel like attitudes mixing over isn't too big of a stretch, especially as you were asking for it, this time."

"I haven't noticed anything about how I feel," Nora commented. "I talked to Comet about it, and she hasn't really had any changes in attitude."

"It has been slightly different for each of us," Ren pointed out. "Ruby has visions. Yang's Aura cuts out most often, but it doesn't hurt her. But I've noticed that it happens with Blake often as well, while it does hurt her. And it only happened with me once--mostly, my Semblance hasn't been working."

"I don't want to test to see if my Semblance is working properly," Nora stated. 

"Fair enough," Ren replied. 

Weiss rubbed the sleeping Ruby's shoulder. "I've noticed that my Semblance has actually gotten stronger, but my Aura is weaker all the time."

"And you happen to be more competitive," Blake added. 

"What do you mean?"

Blake, in response, put down a card. "Wild, skip-turn, draw 4."

"Gods dammit!" Weiss stopped. "Oh."

Everyone laughed as Weiss blushed. "Fair enough," Weiss said. 

Blake surveyed the two cards left in her hand. Her Aura crackled, and she flinched. "We don't understand this. There is no real way we can ever understand this. I don't think there's--" She flinched again, her Aura a deep purple glow. She put down her cards, then sat back on the floor. "Ah...ah...ah..." She closed her eyes. 

"You need anything?" Weiss asked. 

"A moment of quiet. This _hurts_." 

Weiss put down her own hand of cards. "Sorry."

"There's nothing you can do." Blake breathed in and out. 

Ruby bolted upright. "They're coming! Eclipse is attacking!"

"When?" Weiss asked. 

The school shook. Dust fell from the ceiling. 

"I'm guessing it's twelve a clock?" Ruby asked, rubbing her head. 

Pyrrha jumped up, weapons flying into her hands. She picked up Crescent Rose and tossed it to Ruby, who jumped up and caught it. 

Blake rose shakily to her feet. "I'll need to stay back a minute, out of combat until my Aura comes back up."

"Okay." Ruby looked at everyone. "Hopefully, no one gets hurt."

"Uh oh," Midoriya said, backing up. He, Iida, and a well-rested Yang stood in a hallway, along with Mineta and Kirishima. 

At the opposite end of the hallway, Wan rose up from the wall she'd smashed down, growling. 

"It's fine!" Mineta cried. "Yang took her down last time! Take her down again! Teach her a lesson!"

"Umm...I don't...uh...my Aura's down right now..." Yang replied, trailing off. "I, uh, don't think I could withstand one blow from that thing."

"There isn't much maneuverability in this hallway. We don't have any dodging room, and none of us can really take this thing on." Iida grimaced. "The best course of action would be to retreat." _Besides, I'm sure that Ruby girl could take this thing on. She moved faster than I did, and appears to have more combat training..._ Wan roared, advancing. The students backed up as she strode forward. 

"Sticking time!" Mineta cried desperately, throwing a sticky ball. Wan's hand came down upon it, sticking there. Wan gave a few tugs at the purple glop, then simply ripped her hand free. She turned to the students, growling as she walked forward. 

"It didn't do anything! We're all gonna die!" Mineta screamed, running away. 

"As much as I hate to admit it, Mineta has the right idea," Midoriya said. He backed up as Wan advanced further. She was under twenty feet away. She hadn't attacked yet. 

Yang fired off a shot with Ember Celica. Wan jumped backwards, running twenty feet away out of the blast radius. 

"Wait..." Bakugo frowned. "Is she afraid of you?"

Yang paused. Then, she took a step forward. Wan didn't move, simply watching her. "Looks like." Yang frowned. "Come on. Let's back up. We can't take this thing right now."

"So, uh, back up a bit more?" Kirishima asked. 

"Come on and move, ya big brute," a voice called out from behind Wan. Fang stepped around Wan, sword drawn. "What could possibly be keeping you up this long?" She glared at the students, then glared at Wan. "Really?"

Wan roared. Fang didn't even flinch. She turned and fired a bullet, which Yang ducked beneath. "If they're scared of bullets, then you're fists will probably do fine." Fang slapped Wan in the shoulder. "Go on and get them." Wan didn't move. Fang sighed, rolling her eyes. "Ugh. Fine." She pointed at them. "Fetch."

Wan still didn't move. Fang growled, and kicked Wan. "Move your ass!" she shouted. Wan punched her, dropping and smashing her into the stone floor, raising a bloody fist. Fang rose, bones snapping back together and into their proper angles. She pulled out a phone, but it was broken. "God dammit. Adam, give me your phone for a minute."

A second figure stepped out of the hole in the wall, and around Wan. He wore a black jacket and red undershirt. He had on a belt with a sword in a sheath. On one shoulder was a strange insignia. He ran a hand through his red hair, past the white mask over his eyes as he looked from the broken floor to Fang. "Why?"

"Because this stupid brute broke mine!" Fang snapped, waving the broken phone around. 

Adam sighed, fishing in a back pocket for his phone, which he handed to Fang, who dialed a number on it. She paused a second, waiting for an answer. 

"Adam, was it?" Ruby's voice crackled. "How did you get my cell phone number?"

"How do I get Wan to fight people? She's being stubborn."

"Have you tried please?" Ruby replied. "Also, why are you using Adam's phone?"

"Wan was stubborn." Fang looked at Wan. "Please?"

Wan roared, then charged forward. 

"You're welcome," Ruby said, hanging up. Fang handed Adam his phone back. 

Wan struck at the students, who jumped aside from her attacks. Yang punched her, then jumped back as Wan retaliated. Stone flew into the air as her fist hit the ground. Wan roared, circling Yang. Yang backed up a step. 

Wan looked puzzled. She lunged. Yang jumped back. Wan cut off mid-lunge. A low growl sounded as she began to slowly advance on Yang. 

_Well, shit,_ Yang thought. Wan roared, smashing downwards at Yang. Yang, instead of jumping backwards, jumped forwards. Wan's hands were large, but Yang figured(and hoped) that Wan couldn't easily hit things closer to her. Yang slammed her shoulder into Wan's stomach, twisting and lifting Wan into the air, flipping her over, and throwing her, slamming the massive giant into a the opposite wall--which promptly shattered. Wan landed on a desk, which splintered. The ground she collided with cracked. "Ah." Yang rubbed her shoulder, which was now throbbing with pain. "Lose some weight." 

Midoriya jumped forward, throwing her back, his foot kicking Adam's sword. Adam slid backwards, but was otherwise unmoved. Yang turned to face Adam and Yang. 

"The kid has fast reflexes," Adam commented. 

"Yeah, sure, stab people while their back is turned," Yang snapped. "Real nice." 

Wan roared, and Yang and Midoriya jumped aside as she landed where they'd been standing mere moments ago. The ground in the entire hallway cracked. 

"Uh oh." Fang sighed, her shoulders flopping. "Son of a--" 

The hallway collapsed, dropping all the combatants down a floor into a large sparring area. 

"Perfect!" Kirishima cried. This sparring area was set in a mountainous biome--large, flat-topped stone pillars filled the room. Kirishima, Midoriya, Yang, and Iida landed expertly on a large one. Mineta landed flat on his face. Wan landed in the center of the pillar, followed by Adam, who landed in a crouch, and and Fang, who hit the ground with a sharp crack. She rose, her back bending and twisting back into a normal angle. She rubbed her side. "Ow."

Adam looked at her. Wan bellowed, charging forward. Mineta looked up in time to see a massive fist heading towards his face. He screamed as Yang jumped in front of the blow and caught it with her fists. The impact shattered the ground she stood on and the entire pillar tilted dangerously to one side. But a yellow glow crackled around Yang as she pushed Wan backwards. Wan stumbled back, roaring. She took a step forward, then a step back as Yang stomped forwards. "Doesn't feel so good now, does it?" Yang cried. She threw a punch, which Wan blocked. The collision shook the air, and the pillar now tilted the other way. The two stumbled backwards, glaring at each other. Crying out, they rushed each other and both threw a punch. Their fists collided in midair, and the unfortunate stone pillar couldn't take anymore. As the shockwave spread outwards, the rock cracked down the middle and split in half and shattered. 

Aizawa slammed the White Fang goon's head into the ground. He rose, surveying the remaining criminals and Grimm. Even the Beowulves appeared apprehensive about fighting him. A pink blast of energy shot past him, hitting a Beowulf and vaporizing it. Comet stood next to him, grinning. "Oh, come on. I thought these things were supposed to be tough."

"They don't die easily," Aizawa noted. "You just happen to pack a lot of fire power, if nothing else."

Comet's temper immediately flared. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you don't usually think things through," Aizawa said calmly. A routine he'd done numerous times before. It always worked--Comet didn't usually remember the last time he did it. Her power was linked to her emotions--and she happened to get angry most easily. Pink energy crackled around her skin, living lightning flashing through her eyes. 

"You did not just say what I think you said," she snapped, looking Aizawa in the eyes. 

He calmly returned her gaze. "Well, whaddya know. You can thi--"

The unintended consequence of this strategy appeared to involve him getting decked. He toppled to the ground, hitting hard. The White Fang and Grimm looked at each other. One Beowulf lunged forward. Comet punched it. A ray of pink energy blasted through its chest, hitting the roof and blowing a hole through several floors. Black smoke dissipated. 

"You little shits!" Comet cried, turning and glaring at the surrounding villains. She jumped into the air, power coalescing around her fist. She soared into the air, a glowing maelstrom of energy. Then, she grinned, and hit the ground. Power spread out from the impact point, scattering the Grimm and terrorists. Power radiated from her as she rose. Aizawa rose to his own feet, rubbing his cheek. He took an outstretched hand and looked at a woman in a tank top and jeans. Her long blonde hair tied back in a pony tail. Firecracker grinned at him. "Don't antagonize her. It won't end well."

"It ended well last time I did it," Aizawa replied. He hadn't ever met Firecracker. She was a mystery to him. 

The severed head of a Beowulf landed at Firecracker's boot. She nudged it aside. "Did she punch you then, too?"

"Yes, actually." Aizawa rubbed his cheek again. "Yet again, she's no idiot. She knows what I'm doing."

"And she's fine with it?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. The things heroes have to go through." Firecracker began walking forward. She snapped her hand forward, shooting a glowing red missile that exploded against a Beowulf, decapitating it. Comet turned around and looked at her. 

"Save some for me," Firecracker said, waving a hand. Red lights pooled along her arms, shoulder to wrist, and she extended both hands to the side. As she walked forward, more missiles launched from the spots on her arms, curving around the battlefield and hitting the Grimm where it hurt most. One, however, zoomed past all the Grimm and went towards the person who stood in the back. The young woman held up a hand, deflecting the missile with...something. The air rippled, and the explosion went off harmlessly. 

"Figured it was boss fight time," Firecracker commented. She turned to Comet. "Ready?"

Comet looked around, realizing that Firecracker had killed half the Grimm in under a minute. "Uh...sure."

Firecracker turned to the young woman. "I believe...you'd be Cinder, right?"

Cinder glared at her. Two glass swords materialized into her hands. They burst into flames. Orange sigils glowed on her dress. 

"I'm only going to ask this once," Cinder said, glaring down at the floor. "Where. Is. Emerald."


	8. The Triumph

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cinder Fall battles Firecracker and Comet. Wan battles Yang. Atrophy does something bad.

"Who?" Firecracker looked at Comet. 

"Green haired girl?" Comet reminded her. "Skimpy coat? Dual pistols?"

"Oh, her."

Cinder gazed at them in brilliant fury. 

"Wanting to find the turncoat, then?" Firecracker clenched her fists, striding forward. "Sorry, lady. No vengeance for you."

Cinder glared at her. "You're lying. She didn't betray me. She wouldn't have."

"Ah, denial, my old friend." Firecracker pulled off her tank top, revealing her stomach was covered in scars. They began glowing red. "You know, trust and loyalty happen to be the two most changeable things in a human." She closed her eyes. Deep breath in, deep breath out. "Honestly, I didn't know why she suddenly switched sides. Then I listened to you. Honestly, I would have quit long before she did." Firecracker opened her eyes, which glowed red. 

Adam landed lithely on his feet, small rocks landing all around him. Fang landed in with a bloody splat. 

"Can you stop doing that?" Adam snapped. 

"I have the ability to avoid pain entirely," Fang said, rising and straightening her head so it was at a normal angle. "But at a certain point, I just stopped caring." She pulled out Gambol Shroud. 

Midoriya landed in a crouch, putting Mineta on the ground. Kirishima did a power slam, and Iida jumped from a falling boulder and landed lithely. 

Yang landed next, followed by Wan. Wan rose, roaring at the top of her lungs. "You ready, bitch?" Yang ask, punching both her fists together. She walked forward, punching downwards, discharging the empty ammo cartridge in favor for a new one. The two met again, Yang dodging and blasting, Wan blocking and striking. 

"Time to handle the rest of them," Adam said. His sword leapt from his sheath as Midoriya lunged, but to his surprise, Midoriya went over him, knocking a boulder out of the air, keeping it from crushing them. Midoriya hit the ground and bounced to his feet. 

"You handle him, I'll handle Legz and Crew," Fang said. She jumped away. Adam stared after her, then turned his gaze to Midoriya, sheathing his sword, hand on the hilt. Beneath his mask, he frowned. 

"You saved me. Why? I'm trying to kill you. You're a human, I'm a Faunus. We're mortal enemies, by nature."

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not just going to sit back and watch anyone die," Midoriya replied. "No good hero would."

Adam began circling the young boy. "Huh. I'll have to see if I can find the version of you in my world." He lunged forward, slashing at Midoriya. Midoriya jumped backwards, the sword slashing through empty air. Adam stepped back, sheathing his sword. Midoriya jumped forward, kicking hard. Adam pulled his sword partly out of his sheath, blocking the blow. He grunted as he found himself shoved backwards by the force of the kick. He sheathed his sword, yanking the sheath and firing from the hilt of his sword. Midoriya rolled out of the way of the bullets, then jumped in and attacked again. Adam spun the sword around, pulling it half out of its sheath and blocking again. He stumbled backwards as Midoriya bounced off. Adam sheathed the sword again. "You're strong."

Midoriya took a fighting stance. Adam held his sword back, then focused, activating his Semblance. His hair glowed red, as well as the rose insignia on his shoulder and his blade. He slashed outwards with his sword. A burst of power radiated out. Midoriya jumped out of the way as the slash cut through the air and through the unwitting Fang. Blood sprayed into the air as the blast hit Wan. Wan managed to block with her fist, but her gauntlet was severed. The top half of the gauntlet fell to the ground...along with half the wire that ran from the machinery on her back to her mouth to her gauntlets. White gas sprayed out of the wire. 

"Tell me that wasn't important," Adam said. Fang rose, reconnecting her upper torso with her lower torso. She turned to Wan, then to Adam, then to Wan again. She walked over to Wan, who was breathing deeply. Fang turned to Adam and gave a thumbs up. "She looks fine." 

Wan smashed her, pulverizing her and turning her into a bloody smear on the ground. Wan panted, breathing in and out deeply. Then, she screamed into the air, a scream anger and rage and pure animal fury. 

"It was probably important," Midoriya said, backing up with Adam. 

"Cinder is strong. She has a powerful power set, she is very skilled at combat, and she is very quick at thinking." Aizawa watched the fight. Comet sat beside him, jaw dropped in awe. "Then again, Firecracker's just on another level." Her Quirk, from what Aizawa remembered, allowed her to create exploding projectiles out of her skin. She could control them, and manipulate them. Individually, they were not that tough. However, the air swarmed with them, circling around, occasionally zipping in and bombarding Cinder. Cinder didn't have a good enough defense. She could deflect most of the individual bombs, but there were so many. Most of them even moved around her shield and hit Cinder anyway. Cinder hadn't been able to make any good attacks. Firecracker hadn't even moved from her starting position. Cinder stood, panting and sweating, swords ready, watching the circling projectiles. 

"Ugh." Firecracker rubbed her neck. "You really are a pest." 

Cinder growled, taking an aggressive stance. Immediately every single projectile zoomed in on Cinder with speed. Cinder looked in alarm, then radiated fire. The air around her burst into flames, deflecting the incoming missiles. Cinder panted. More missiles appeared from the red spots on Firecracker's skin. Cinder rushed forward, swinging her sword. Firecracker cursed, jumping aside. Cinder, however, didn't even come close to hitting her. She slashed through empty air, twenty feet from where Firecracker stood. Cinder looked from where she stood to Firecracker. 

A soft thud sounded. A figure landed in a crouch at the opposite side of the room. Small, lithe. Emerald rose, weapons out, staring at Cinder with a look of fierce determination. Cinder stared at her, then the swords disappeared. She fell to her knees, tears welling up in her eyes. 

Then a barrage of missiles hit her square in the face. Crying out in pain, Cinder was flung aside, rolling across the ground. She jumped to her feet only to be knocked down again. 

"Learn when you are defeated," Firecracker snarled, striding forward. She swiped her hand to the side, and another barrage hit Cinder, knocking her down again. Cinder struggled up into a seated position. She looked at Firecracker, then looked past her to Emerald. Cinder closed her eyes. 

A third blast hit Cinder, slamming her into the ground, cracking it. Firecracker put her boot on Cinder. "Scum of the earth. You are nothing but scum." She wiped sweat from her brow. Gritting her teeth, she picked Cinder up by the collar of her dress. Then she dropped Cinder and jumped backwards as a sword slashed through the air. Paladin stepped from a portal and stood in front of Cinder. More Beowulves and White Fang operatives jumped through nearby portals. 

"You have work to do," Paladin said quietly. "A lot of work." He pointed his sword at Firecracker. "You don't get to give up, Cinder. If your opponent is in front of you, you fight. If you have or don't have the power, you fight. You may die, but you're going to make every second of your enemy's victory a living hell." He looked down at Cinder. "If you are betrayed, you keep fighting. Let nothing stand in your way. You hold the power to win." He held out his spare hand. Cinder took it, and he pulled her to her feet. Paladin turned to Firecracker. "Annaisha," she growled. 

"Out of juice, Lisa?" Paladin asked quietly. He strode forward, spinning his sword. "I have fight to spare."

Firecracker gave him a look of cold-blooded murder. Then, she attacked. Three missiles. Paladin strode forward, deflecting them with his sword. 

And the real fight began. 

Cinder stretched out her hands, then stopped, staggered, and grabbed her right shoulder. Then, gritting her teeth, she summoned her glass swords again. She turned to Aizawa and Comet. She stretched out her sword, holding it sideways in front of her. Comet hurled a blast of energy her way. Cinder deflected it, but this time the shield shattered. She staggered backwards. Then she chuckled. "Ah. So that's how it is." She held the sword out in front of her again, then lunged. She swung at Aizawa and Comet, both of whom leapt backwards. Cinder jumped backwards, turning her swords into a bow. She fired off a volley of arrows, which hit the ground as Comet and Aizawa dodged out of the way. Comet charged Cinder, her fist glowing with energy, and threw punches. Cinder blocked with her sword, sliding backwards beneath Comet's attack. Cinder pushed backwards, knocking Comet off balance, then slashed outwards. Comet back flipped over the attack, firing off more energy blasts at Cinder. Cinder jumped backwards, her weapons disappearing entirely. She stretched out a hand, and all the rubble that had been thrown into the air glowed red and coalesced into multiple large spikes, which Cinder threw at Comet and Aizawa. Aizawa dodged backwards out of the way, but Comet blasted them out of the air. 

"She's tough," Aizawa told her. 

"But not unbeatable," Comet snapped. 

Ruby rushed down the hallway. "Come on, guys! We can't actually do anything if we don't even find the bad guys!"

"There they are!" Blake said. Ruby grated to a stop and looked ahead at hers and Weiss' doppelgangers. "Oh."

The evil Ruby sighed dramatically. "Really?" She surveyed the seven kids standing her path. She stretched out one hand, then taunted them, the universal sign for, "come at me, bro."

The other Ruby rushed forward, swinging her scythe at her duplicate. The latter responded by drawing crimson sword and easily blocking the scythe. She twisted around and kicked Ruby in the stomach. Ruby flung backwards, landing at the feet of the other huntsmen-in-training. She looked up in surprise. Her duplicate walked forward, spinning the sword around. "Yeah, like I'd jump into the middle of a school full of armed and trained super heroes without the ability to defend myself."

And before we continue, I am tired of writing the word 'duplicate'. Evil Ruby is now going to be called Rose, and evil Weiss shall be called Ice Queen. This is to avoid confusion. 

Ruby growled. "Everyone... _get her_."

All seven of them rushed her. Nora swung Magnhild. Rose ducked beneath it, booting Nora away and blocking an attack from Jaune with her sword. Then, she slashed at Jaune, who blocked with his shield. She rammed her sword into his shield, and he staggered backwards. Then she kicked him. He blocked, but was still thrown backwards into Ren, and the two fell backwards in a heap. Rose took a step back as Blake jumped forward, slashing downwards. Rose jumped into the air as Blake attempted to knock her over. Blake used her semblance to jump aside as Rose kicked downwards. The stone cracked beneath her foot as she slashed at Blake. Blake leapt aside as Pyrrha jumped in, spinning around with her shield. Rose blocked the shield bash with her sword, then swung at Pyrrha. Pyrrha slid the attack away with her shield, and her Semblance. Rose's face turned to an expression of surprise as her sword twisted out of the way. Then, grinning, she grabbed Pyrrha's shield with her spare hand, shoving her shield out of the way and punching Pyrrha in the face. Pyrrha stumbled, and was promptly booted away. Weiss jumped into the air, summoning a glyph in front of her. She swung her rapier, spewing fire dust at Rose. Ice Queen leapt in front of Rose, summoning a glyph of her own. The fire disappeared on collision with the glyph, which then turned red and spewed the fire back out. Weiss jumped backwards as the fire blasted outwards. 

"Thanks," Rose said, straightening herself. She spun her sword, stabbing it into the ground and leaning on it. "Wow. I honestly expected you to be--" She stopped. Then, she grabbed Ice Queen and threw both of them aside. Yang suddenly burst through the wall, slamming into the other one and breaking through that one as well. Midoriya, carrying Mineta, jumped behind her, running, with Iida and Kirishima following. 

Then Adam Taurus slid backwards through the hole in the wall, raising his sword to block. A massive fist punched him, throwing him after Yang. Wan crawled through the hole in the wall, screaming her head off, rushing after the rest of them. 

"Was that--" Blake rose, stunned. 

"Uh, that's probably bad." Rose rubbed the back of her head. "Ah, shit. Stupid son of a..." She shook her head, sheathing her sword, she followed Wan with Ice Queen following her. 

"Well, after them!" Jaune called out, rushing after them. The rest of his team followed him. Weiss jumped through the wall. Blake, however, stopped, and looked back at Ruby. "Uh, you coming?"

Ruby looked away. "I...I..."

Blake looked down the hole in the wall, then walked back over to Ruby. "What is it?"

"I'm...I...I'm not fast enough..." Ruby touched the bandage that still covered half her face. She looked at Blake, pain in her remaining eye. "You just go. You'll...be better without me."

"Says who?" Blake glared at her. 

"Well, uh..."

"No one. You failed to dodge one hit. So what? Everyone gets hit time and again." Blake put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Everyone fumbles occasionally. And you know how fast she is now--so next time she comes at you, you can dodge her." Ruby looked away again. Then, she hugged Blake hard. "Thank you."

Cinder panted. Comet had a large cut covering half her face, but Aizawa had managed to evade attacks. Despite having been shot the day before, he was unhurt. Comet didn't know what this room was, but she was glad it was so spacious. 

"I'm not giving up yet," Cinder said, pointing her sword at the two. 

"Then it looks like I'm about to break your other arm," Comet growled. The wall in-between them exploded, and Yang Xiao Long hurtled through the room, followed by Midoriya and Iida, Mineta and Kirishima, and then someone she didn't recognize, who landed in an ungraceful heap. He barely got up and moved in time to avoid having Wan squish him. 

Wan roared. But one of her gauntlets was missing, and a cut tube was spraying a thick white mist around her. Cinder immediately started coughing when she inhaled it, then started walking away. 

"Uh, isn't that..." Comet gulped. "The big one?"

"Wan!" a voice cried. Rose leapt into the room, behind her sister, somehow avoiding tripping and falling despite being blind. _Her_ _Quirk?_ Comet thought. "Wan! Calm down! Calm! Calm, girl!" 

Wan swung at Rose, who ducked and stepped back. "Wan! You remember me! It's me, Ruby!"

Wan shook her head, roaring, before attacking again. This time, the Ice Queen leapt in, grabbed Ruby, and pulled her aside. 

They landed beside Eclipse. Eclipse looked at Rose, then up at Wan with a sigh. "Dad!" Rose cried. 

"Didn't I warn you?" Eclipse said quietly. 

"Dad...I..."

"I said that attacking this soon would not end well," he continued. "That you would lose soldiers. Now I can't bring Wan back with us because she lost control."

"Please...we...we need to..."

"Ruby." He knelt down next to her. "This was to teach you. All students fail at least once. Consider this a particularly nasty lesson."

Comet lunged, a blast of power ready to hurl. Eclipse didn't even look her way. Instead, his scarves zipped up, skewered her through her chest and stomach, and tossed her to the side before returning to their normal positions. "Come now," Eclipse told Rose. "It is time to leave." Shadows spread across the room. The White Fang and the Grimm disappeared. Adam took one last look at Blake before disappearing. Cinder looked mad, and started to say something when she was pulled away. 

Wan, however, was left. She looked around, roaring angrily. A bullet plinked against her head. She turned and roared at Ruby and Blake. "Come on then!" Ruby cried, firing shot after shot. Wan started to move her way, but Midoriya leapt on top of her, kicking her in the head and jumping off. Nora leapt into the air swinging Magnhild. Wan caught it, roared at Nora's face, then threw her. 

"Ice Flower!" Ruby told Weiss. Wan spun at them, then...attacked the empty air right beside her. All of a sudden, she stopped and started directing her wrath at the empty space right next to her. Ruby shared a look with Weiss, confused. 

"Attack!" Emerald shouted. "I can't keep her distracted forever! And she's harder to use my Semblance on than normal people!"

Ruby pointed her gun at Wan, aiming through one of Weiss' glyphs. She took a deep breath, then glared down her scope at Wan and fired. The bullets created huge chunks of ice around Wan, each one slowing her down slightly. Shot after shot, and still Wan didn't stop. "Oh come on!" Ruby cried, firing again. "Just...go...down...already!"

A blast of fire hit Wan. Pure white fire coated her and the ground near her. Wan roared in fury, lifting her hands...then fell to the ground. Looking befuddled, she tried getting up, but her muscles had suddenly stopped being as strong. Midoriya looked up at the entryway to the room, right at Atrophy. But he wasn't in his mechanical suit. Instead, he wore a light brown coat, a fedora, and jeans. He lowered his hand. "There we go. That should be enough."

"Atrophy?" Midoriya asked. "Aren't you supposed to be in jail?"

"Toshinori sent me," Atrophy replied. "Said I could lend a hand. And whaddya know, I could." He grinned. He wasn't wearing his mask--his face was wrinkled, he was skinny, and not too tall. He didn't look particularly heroic or villainous--he just looked normal. 

"Well, have fun," he said, turning around and walking off. 

"Wait!" Midoriya cried. "Aren't you going to help!"

"I did help! I lifted one finger to help you!" Atrophy called out, waving one hand over his shoulder. 

"I suppose I can't complain," Midoriya muttered. 

"Alright then!" Ruby cried. " _Get her!_ " She lunged, her scythe hitting Wan in the head, and bouncing off. But it was reflected by...Aura? And not yellow Aura, like Yang's. Red. Like Ruby's. Ruby felt something distinctly disturbing at that. Almost...a memory?

_"Hold her down!"_

_"We need to make this work, for her..."_

_"Shit! If she lives, she's going to be pissed."_

What was going on with Wan? 

Wan swung at her, and, remember her situation, Ruby dodged. It helped that she used her hand that didn't have the gauntlet--and was thus smaller--and that Atrophy's attack had left Wan barely able to move. So Ruby stepped back in, viciously attacking Wan, stepped around her as she swung again, then attacked her from behind. 

Doing it like this, this was easy. She could do this. 

She stumbled as another vision came over her. 

"Dammit! Not now!" She jumped far out of Wan's reach, struggling not to fall over. Blake caught her, her aura crackling a bright violet. "It's okay," Blake said. 

"I need a minute," Ruby said. 

_"We need to go back!" Cinder cried. "Go back and get Emerald!"_

_Eclipse ignored her, moving a few steps to the side, walking past where Ruby sat, sniffling. Eclipse stood over a sink, then reached up and took off his mask, setting it aside._

_"We need to go back!" Cinder repeated, walking up to Eclipse. Eclipse slowly turned to face her. Whatever was under the mask, it scared Cinder, as every ounce of color drained from her face._

_"I understand it was because of you that Ruby felt the need to rush the assault," Eclipse said. "Understand that if you ever do anything that puts Ruby in danger, I will strap you down onto a table and individually remove your muscle ligaments from your bones. I will do it slowly and painfully, over the course of several hours, stopping every once in a while, just to let your pain simmer and boil until you can't feel anything but pain, and when that happens, you will beg for mercy and I will refuse to give it to you."_

_Cinder backed away._

_"Do you understand?"_

_Cinder nodded._

_Then Ruby became aware of the point of view of this particular vision. It wasn't from her doppelganger's point of view. It was from the point of view of...lab equipment?_

Ruby sat up. "Okay! How long has it been?"

"Not long," Blake told her. 

An echoing roar from Wan told Ruby exactly how long it had been. "Alright," she growled. "Let's finish this."


	9. My Darling Genius

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to officially apologize for how long it has been since I updated this, and for how I've updated the chapters a little bit at a time, not posting full chapters. As a side note, I am officially changing that and will post these last two chapters only when they're done.

Kirishima jumped in to attack, but had to abort and duck aside to avoid getting crushed. Wan's fist narrowly missed him, and Weiss took the moment to attack, jumping in and slashing Wan's shoulder and jumping out. Wan's fist was too slow to hit her. Midoriya leapt in, kicked Wan's stomach and shoved off of it, getting out of range again. Wan stumbled backwards, giving a cry of rage. Midoriya coughed, waving his hand in front of his mouth. "Don't breathe in that gas!" he cried. 

"I guess it wasn't life support," Kirishima muttered. He cracked his knuckles. "So, how do we take her down?"

"The first time she went down, it was because Yang damaged the machinery around her face," Midoriya said. "But if Eclipse is as cautious and smart as they said he was, then he might have reinforced it."

"It's as good a bet as any," Kirishima said. "Go for her...mouthpiece, I guess?"

Wan rose up to her full height, roaring.

"Ah, great, Atrophy's attack wore off," Kirishima said. 

"We've got to be careful," Midoriya said. "She's already taken a lot of hits. One hit from her now could kill someone, especially as I hit her at multiple times, and I wasn't really holding back any more than usual..." He stopped, then glared up at Wan. "Alright. Screw the odds; let's take her down!" He jumped at Wan. Wan punched at him, and he stepped aside, jumping and planting his foot in her face. Wan slid backwards, roaring, stumbling. A red-and-yellow glow crackled around her body. 

"She has Aura!" Ruby warned. "Be careful!"

"Aura?" Midoriya looked at Wan. Wan continued stumbling, shaking her head, and roaring. She looked...dizzy?

Wan fell to one knee, clutching her head. The gas spewing from the cut tube slowed, then stopped coming out entirely. Wan struggled to rise one last time, then fell flat on her face. The ground shook. Wan stayed down. 

"She passed out?" Kirishima said. "That was anticlimactic."

"She looks like she's going to be fine," Recovery Girl said. "I did some scans, and all the machinery she's been lugging around? Not life support. Most of it was intense drugs designed to keep her from thinking too hard."

"Drugs?" Aizawa asked. 

"It looks like that poor girl hasn't been able to think for a long time," Recovery Girl said. "But thank God that no one got hurt this time around."

Ruby flinched, touching her face. 

"So what do we do now?" Blake asked, rubbing her shoulders. Her Aura crackled, and her face scrunched up. 

"Well, we have taken out one of their main operatives," Aizawa said. "That's a start. But Atrophy escaped. Apparently he fed Midoriya some crap about All Might sending him to help. But we have no idea where he went."

"Sorry," Midoriya apologized. "I should have stopped him, but honestly, I felt like there were more pressing matters at the moment and..."

"Don't worry about it too much," All Might said. "He left his suit here. He can't do too much without his suit."

"He can still wreak a metric ton of havoc, but he's most likely not planning on it," Firecracker said. "He would have brought the suit. And even if he had, Eclipse still kinda takes precedence."

"Is Comet going to be okay?" Ren asked. 

Recovery Girl mulled over her answer. "Ah...possibly. She seems like she's going to be fine. But she apparently hasn't been sleeping well enough lately. She was too tired for my Quirk to help her that much. We'll pay for her bills while she recovers, but she might not recover. My Quirk healed the worst injuries first, but she still has multiple holes spread across her vital organs."

Ren let loose a breath. 

"We need to stop Cinder," Emerald interrupted. 

Everyone turned to her. 

"Eclipse was hired by her. Without the employer, he'll have no reason to continue his slaughter."

"Okay then," Ruby agreed, standing up. "Cinder will fall."

"Excuse me," a voice cut in. All eyes turned to see Wan standing in the doorway. Without the large gauntlets and the tubes and pipes, she looked small. Her hair was messy, her skin wrinkled. Over her hands were tight-fitting black gloves. She rubbed her eyes. "Where am I?" she asked. 

Ruby leapt as far away from Wan as possible, flattening herself against the wall on the opposite side of the room. Everyone jumped to their feet. 

"Aizawa?" Wan asked. She blinked. "Um...where is this? And what's up with them?" She looked at Ruby and Yang. "And why the fuck is my hair so long?"

Wan dropped the pair of scissors, then fluffed up her now short hair. She felt her face, then looked in the small hand mirror that had been provided. "I'm still confused," she said. 

"I don't know either," Aizawa said. "When I last saw you, you were busy writing up computer programs. Yesterday, you were..."

Wan rubbed her head. Then she pulled the gloves off. She straightened her jacket, which she'd unbuttoned. "And those eight are from some parallel universe?" She thumbed at Ruby, who was still sitting on the opposite side of the room. 

"Yup."

"The implications of that are troubling," Wan said. "First and foremost, the dimensional barriers are weak enough so people can just do that?"

"I know!" Midoriya chimed in. "I compared it to living in a house with leaky walls."

Wan nodded. "That sounds about right."

"And Ruby...this world's Ruby...is now a criminal," Aizawa said. "I don't know when that happened."

"After Tai pumped me full of drugs," Wan growled. "How long was I like that?"

"I don't know," Aizawa replied. "What happened right before?"

"Uh...news reports of some villain attack? Some idiot with a gun..." Wan shrugged. "I don't really pay much attention to politics."

"When was the last time we met?" Aizawa asked. "How much time was between that meeting and you becoming..."

"Stupid?" Wan growled. 

"...I was going to say..."

"Something wrong," Wan interrupted. "I was a fucking genius, but now my thoughts are so slow..." She shook her head, angry. "And this isn't something like a hangover or feeling tired early morning, something that you feel is gonna pass quickly. No, this is my body telling me that something is fucked up." She sat there, fuming for a minute, before saying, "In my time, we hadn't seen each other for about a month."

"That last meeting of ours was eight years ago," Aizawa replied. 

"Eight years," Wan said flatly. "Eight Goddamn years."

"Wan..."

"Don't you 'Wan' me," she cried, standing up. "Shota, I just lost a decade of my life! Eight years!" She shook her head. "It'll help Ruby, he said. We can give her sight, he said." Wan sat down hard, rocking the hospital bed. "That bastard. Whether or not he actually succeeded in giving Ruby the ability to see, she wouldn't have wanted this! Summer wouldn't have wanted this!"

Aizawa didn't answer for a long time. "Summer is dead," he finally said. 

Wan looked up at him. "What."

"Summer died, five days ago," Aizawa said. "Ruby passed the message right before they attacked the school."

"She's...she's..." She shook her head. "She was always kind of sickly...those coughing fits were getting worse, and...more frequent, I was beginning to get worried...I..." She put a hand to her head. "Good God, what did I do to deserve this?" she said quietly. 

"No one deserves this," Aizawa told her. 

"He deserves it," Wan growled. "He fucking deserves worse. I'm gonna kill him."

" _Yang._ "

Wan looked up at him. Aizawa said, "Calm down."

Wan sighed, then stood up. "So, Ruby--" The moment Wan took a step in Ruby's direction, Ruby pulled out her gun and pointed it at Wan's face. Wan took a surprised step backwards, hands in the air. "Ruby?" she said slowly. 

"Just...stay back...for a minute," Ruby said, fighting off panic. 

"PTSD?" Wan asked, frowning. She looked at the bandage Ruby still wore. "Dead God. What did I do?"

"Yang?" Aizawa asked. 

"Ruby has a bandage around one eye and just had a PTSD flashback when I stepped too close," Wan practically shouted. She turned and glared at Aizawa. "What did I do?"

"You...didn't mean to," Ruby said quietly. 

Wan spun on her. "Your brain clearly doesn't care, and I don't either." Ruby flinched, and Wan took a few deep breaths. "I'm sorry. I'm...angry right now."

"You have every right to be," Ruby told her, lowering the gun with obvious struggle. 

Wan stomped towards the doorway. "Where's Bumblebee?" she demanded. 

"The motorcycle?" Yang asked. 

"My motorcycle. The black-and-yellow one. The only one that I've ever used, the one I've had since high-school," she growled, glaring at Yang. 

"If Ruby doesn't have it, it would probably be at your house," Aizawa said. 

"Who here has a working car that can drive me over there?" Wan demanded, looking around the room. 

"I'll drive you," Aizawa said, checking in his pockets and pulling out some keys. 

"Mind if I tag along?" Ruby burst out. Wan looked at her, surprised. "Are...you sure?"

"Hey, you seem like a nice person, and I really don't want to let one bad experience separate me from my sister," Ruby said with a forced smile.

"I'll come too," Blake said, putting a reassuring hand on Ruby's shoulder. Ruby smiled at her. 

"The car only fits four," Aizawa said before anyone else could say anything. "And even this is pushing it. Now come on."

The car did only fit four--Aizawa and Wan in the front, Ruby and Blake in the back. The first half the trip was done in silence before Wan finally said, "So, you don't have Quirks in your world?"

"Nope. Semblances instead."

"What exactly is the difference?"

"Well, a Semblance isn't just automatically unlocked when you're five," Ruby explained. "Its unlocked when you need it, I think."

"And like with Quirks, you don't know what it is ahead of time?" Wan asked. 

"Yeah," Blake said. 

"Though mine just sort of appeared one day while training," Ruby admitted. "Don't know what happened there."

"Special Semblance for a special girl," Wan said with a wink. 

"Aw," Ruby said. 

"So...if you don't have Quirks...and Semblances work way differently..." Wan bit her lip. "Then what's up with the cat ears?"

"Is it that obvious?" Blake shouted. "Like, seriously, what the hell?"

"Was it...like a secret or something?" Wan asked. 

"Yes!" Blake exclaimed. 

"And no one noticed?" Aizawa asked. 

"Who would look for it?" Ruby replied. "No one would just assume she's lying about not being a Faunus."

"Faunus?" Wan asked. "Are you...not human?"

Blake glared at Ruby. 

"I'll shut up now," Ruby said, shrinking back away from Blake. 

"We're here now," Aizawa interrupted. The car pulled to a stop, and Aizawa opened his door and got out. Wan followed, and then Ruby and Blake. Wan pulled out a pair of keys. "Guess these have been in my pocket for eight years straight," she said. 

"Why?" Aizawa asked. 

Wan shrugged. She fumbled with the keys a minute, then Ruby heard a metallic snap. Rubbing her short hair, Wan held up the broken key. "Guess I'm stronger than I thought?"

Ruby reached up and touched her face. "Yeah. Guess so."

If Wan noticed, she didn't say anything. Instead, she ripped the door straight off its hinges. "I guess this technically counts as breaking and entering," Wan muttered. She threw the door to the side and walked into the house. 

As Ruby entered, everything inside looked familiar. "Why do I recognize half of these paintings on the wall?" she asked, putting a hand on the portrait. "I feel...like I remember hanging this up."

"Do you have some of my Ruby's memories?" Wan asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, but isn't she blind?" Ruby countered. "So how do I remember what these portraits look like?"

Wan frowned. "Hmm. I don't know."

"Wan, I--I think some of these memories are yours." 

"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" Wan asked. 

"Well, most of the problems we have are because of, we assume, two versions of Ruby, two souls, one Aura. My Aura can't tell which one its supposed to go to." She frowned. "But in my case, I've been getting some of the other Ruby's memories. But...when I...fought you..."

Wan's frown deepened. 

"You had Aura. Red Aura."

"Okay. I think I have a soul, so, having an Aura isn't too much of a stretch, right?" Wan said, pointing at Ruby. 

"But no one else in this world has Aura," Blake said. "Surely someone would have noticed it existed."

"Humanity didn't know gravity was a thing until three hundred years ago," Wan said, giving her a flat stare. "It's not much of a stretch."

"But you have my Aura," Ruby said. "Yang's is yellow. Mine is red."

Wan thought for a moment. "Souls are color coded?"

"Yes, well--just--argh!" Ruby glared at her. "Look! I think this Eclipse guy really did something quite a bit weirder than we all thought it was, okay?"

"Well, I kind of got that, from his whole, 'this'll change everything' rant," Wan replied. "I mean, he kept ranting about how he'd discovered something, how everything could be fixed..." She shook her head. "Tai...is not the ideal dad."

Ruby, hesitant, stepped over and put a hand on Wan's shoulder. Wan looked up in surprise. "Just...don't move too quickly, kay? Cause I really want to be friends with you," Ruby said. 

Wan nodded. 

_Crunch._ Blake lifted a foot. "Uh...I stepped on a robot." Wan walked over, leaning down and picking up an odd contraption. "The rumba?" she asked. "I guess his batteries ran out a while ago."

"Another soldier, fallen in battle," Aizawa said solemnly. 

Wan chuckled at that. "You never fail to make me laugh, do you?"

Aizawa grinned back at her. "Doesn't appear that I've gotten rusty."

Wan stood up, dropping the rumba in a garbage can. "Well. Time to find Bumblebee."

"Oh. That's what we were here for, right, Wan?" Ruby asked. 

"That's not my name," Wan said. "It's Yang."

"Well, it's what the other Ruby called you, and I can't call two people Yang," Ruby told her. 

"She still calls me Wan?" she asked with a chuckle. 

"Where'd that name come from?" Blake asked. 

"When Ruby was young, she couldn't pronounce my name properly," she smiled. "It was always, 'Wan Wan Wan'. A nickname that kinda stuck." Wan laughed. "Speaking of names, I never caught yours."

"Blake Belladonna."

"Belladonna?" Wan frowned. "As in Tai's buddy?"

"Who?" Ruby asked. 

"Kali! That was her name." Wan grimaced. "Yeah, he killed her."

"I know," Blake said quietly. 

Looking over her shoulder at Blake, Wan leapt over a couch and crossed what appeared to be a living room--but all the couches and chairs were tiny. "Wanna talk about it?"

"She wasn't really my mother, I know," Blake said, stepping lightly over the small, plush chairs. "But...still...good gods, hearing about that was messed up."

"I understand," Wan said. "You are only human, after all." She paused at a doorway. "Well, you're not a godlike being or an alien lifeform, that's what I mean. Right?"

"I'm pretty sure I would have noticed being a godlike being," Blake replied. 

"Tiny chairs," Ruby commented.

"Summer liked them," Wan said in a deadpan voice. She tried the door, found it locked, then smashed it open. "I'm going to grab my motorcycle, then we'll head back to UA and get a plan to kick his ass."


	10. The Conclusion

Everyone was talking. Sometimes one person, sometimes another. A lot of 'pro heroes', whatever that meant. Ruby looked around the room, and could find only a few people she had names for. 

"QUIET!" Wan shouted. Everything immediately stopped as everyone looked at her. Wan glared around the room. "No one is getting anything done unless you idiots can speak, one person at a time."

"She is right," Nezu said. His voice was much quieter, as he refused to yell, making Ruby have to strain her ears to hear him. "Let's all calm down and think through this carefully. Previously, Wan was one of our biggest worries about this raid."

"But I'm on your side now," Wan pointed out. "So, nothing too much too worry about."

"The woman Cinder Fall was not too tough," Firecracker said. "Seemed more like a playground bully than anything else."

"Paladin has mostly defensive abilities," All Might put in. "He has a few attacks, but nothing too fancy. I don't think he would use Eclipse's technology."

"Which leads to our biggest problem," one of the other heroes cut in. Ruby had heard her name--Midnight? "Aizawa, what exactly does his full power-set look like?"

"His original Quirk allows him to snuff nearby lights. Fire, electricity, even sunlight. His secondary Quirk allows him to travel through any shadow to any other shadow--but he is limited in that he can only go back and forth between shadows. He can't teleport if the area he's teleporting _too_ has no light." Aizawa paused. 

"But he did do that," Blake pointed out. "He did exactly that."

"So forget that last part," Aizawa said with a sigh. He pulled out his phone, tapping a few buttons. "Aha. Here we go."

"Dear God, is that a scrollbar?" All Might asked, looking over Aizawa's shoulder. 

"It lists all the details on each of his powers," Aizawa said. "So, yes, that's a scrollbar. Those first two were the ones he's most skilled in. He's had them the longest. He's had the most practice with them. Next up, these three he uses in devastating combos. Size manipulation, precision movement, ferrokinesis. He can change the size of non-organic matter he's wearing. He can control metal using body movements. And precision movement is exactly what it sounds like. His scarves, by the way, are made of metal."

"So he can change their size and control them by moving," Weiss said slowly, "but he can also move his body incredibly precisely?"

"I've seen him deflect bullets with the scarf," Aizawa reinforced. "But, as some movement is required, he can't really stop bullets out of the air with his Quirk. They're too fast for him. That doesn't mean he can't, though." He tapped his phone screen. "He uses these next ones pretty frequently, but they're rather limited in use. But they are still pretty powerful. He has enhanced reflexes, he has no joints, and super strength. Also, he can turn his head all the way around, though he doesn't use it that much. And as for super strength, he can throw a person, but he's not as strong as Death Arms."

"Good," Death Arms said with a grin. "Puts me at an advantage."

"If he comes to you, that means he has thought through every outcome and came to the conclusion that you have no hope of beating him." Aizawa glared at the pro hero. "If he comes to you, you run."

"I don't--"

"I might also remind you that he got some of Midoriya's blood," Aizawa added. "That's enough for his Quirk grafting."

All Might looked like he wanted to argue with that, but didn't. 

"It takes a while, per graft. Unless he's seriously upgraded his equipment, he shouldn't have more than one graft. Meaning, given Midoriya's strength, he could take you in a fight only using one of his Quirks." Aizawa glared harder at him. "If he comes after you, run. If you come to him, and he doesn't even appear apprehensive, you run. The only time we can fight him is if he doesn't want to fight."

"But isn't he a teleporter?" Jaune asked. "So, if he wants to run, can't he just teleport away?"

"Yes. If he feels like he needs to book it, he will." Aizawa grimaced. "I don't believe we are actually going to catch him this time. But at the very least, we'll take out most of his set up."

"And, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to get Ruby and Weiss out of their on our side," Wan added. 

"What about that Fang person?" Yang asked. 

"Uh...I've never met her, and I feel like she'd be more inclined to shoot me than listen to a heartfelt speech about family," Wan said. She rubbed her hair. "But I should be able to get through to them."

"Can you get through to Eclipse like that?" Ruby asked. She still felt hesitant talking to Wan. Wan's response, however, alleviated what little fear she had left. 

She laughed. And laughed. "Yeah, not the foggiest chance in hell of that happening."

"And..." Ruby paused. "All of the people I've seen in this place, the kids here are tough. About as tough as the few adults I've seen. And you're leaving them behind?"

"They don't have hero licenses yet," Aizawa said. "If it weren't for that, I'd have no problem bringing them."

"Technically, we don't actually have licenses either," Weiss admitted. 

"You're also not from this dimension, and are probably going to die soon if we don't get you home," Aizawa answered. 

Wan elbowed him hard enough so that he had to grab the table to avoid falling of his chair. It had been the wrong thing to say, as all the Huntsmen in training sat there, looking tense. 

"What's the plan to get us home?" Ruby finally asked. "I mean, we need to get back, otherwise..."

"It's getting worse," Blake added. "The flickers in my Aura are getting more frequent, lasting longer, and hurting more each time. If this keeps up..."

"My Aura's been weakening, too," Weiss said. "I...I don't think people from our world last long here."

"Which is why we're going to get you home tomorrow," All Might said. "Annaisha isn't the kind of guy to let a bunch of kids die if he can stop it. I know you'll be able to convince him to send you home."

Ruby nodded. "We're going to go home."

Cinder flinched, rubbing her broken arm. "Ah. My Aura normally holds out way longer than that."

"The nuances of interdimensional travel are difficult to manage," Paladin said, turning to the next page in his magazine. "Staying in this world too long in one go, I imagine, would be bad. Which is why I sent all of you to your world for a few days."

"To test?"

"Yes."

Cinder nodded. "Makes sense. But Emerald doesn't know, and she's been here for..." She trailed off. 

"Next time we see her, you can ask her why," Paladin said. "But for now, let's--"

The ground shook. An explosion sounded from somewhere nearby. Cinder leapt to her feet, then fell back down as pain spiked up her arm. 

"Find a spot to run to," Paladin said. Armed men and women, whether White Fang terrorists or Roman's lackeys, rose to their feet, hefting weapons. 

"I must say," Roman called out, stepping up to a railing. He stood in the back of the room, on a raised platform. He looked over rows of shelves, full of crates, to a massive pair of double doors. "If that is Red...the one with the scythe...I'm going to scream, Paladin."

The doors shook. Then they exploded, wood chips flying everywhere as a figure strode into the room. Wan. 

"She looks pissed," Roman commented as more heroes came in behind her. 

"ECLIPSE!" Wan shouted. She cracked her knuckles. "GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!"

Immediately a figure appeared in the space next to Cinder. Cinder hurriedly stepped to the side as Eclipse's slight figure materialized next to her. "Hmm. So they got her to calm down. Slightly." Wan picked up the nearest crate and threw it at Eclipse. One of the scarfs whipped out and and smashed the crate, scattering bullets across the room. 

Wan glared at him, standing quite a distance away. 

Paladin gave Eclipse a curious look, putting on his helmet. 

Eclipse didn't say anything. He stood there, hands behind his back. "Didn't you stress how unlikely an attack was?" Cinder hissed at him. 

Eclipse mulled over her accusation. "It appears Aizawa has gotten reckless," he said. "Of course he has. No one stays cautious for long."

"And why is she on their side now?" Cinder demanded, pointing at Wan. 

"She was never on my side, she only thought she was," Eclipse countered. 

"Give me a straight answer, damn it!" Cinder cried. 

Eclipse looked at her. Cinder stared at her own reflection in his mask. "You want a straight answer, I want one thing to go how I want it to. Perhaps the universe may grant one of our wishes, Cinder. But given the current state of affairs, I wouldn't bet on it."

"What's going on?" a new voice asked. Rose stepped into the room, following the Ice Queen and Fang. "Is it an attack?"

"You could say that," Eclipse said slowly. 

"Ruby!" Wan cried. 

Rose frowned as she surveyed the heroes. "Hmm. The Yang doppelganger...but...why do I sense..." Her pale eyes widened. "Dad?" 

"Stay back." Eclipse took a few steps forward. "Roman, Adam, you have your men, you have your targets. _Do as you will._ "

"That's all I needed," Roman said, lifting up his cane. " _Get them,_ " he said, glaring at the nearest henchmen and nodding to the heroes before firing off a missile. 

A large section of stone lifted from the ground, deflecting the bullets and Roman's missile. Wan leapt over the stone barrier, and began charging through the firestorm. Then a bullet hit Eclipse straight in the side of his face. He twisted, crying out in pain as his mask flung to the side. 

"Adam!" Roman cried. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I came here to fight monsters," Adam replied, sheathing his sword. He turned and stepped away from Eclipse and his soldiers. "I just finally realized who the monsters are." He nodded to Blake as every White Fang soldier pointed their gun at Eclipse.

Who calmly reached down and picked up the mask, putting it back on his face. "Fang," he hissed. _"Kill him._ "

Fang grinned. "With pleasure!" She lunged forward, attacking and trading blows with Adam. The White Fang soldiers hesitantly pointed their guns at Eclipse. 

"You need to surrender now," Aizawa called out. 

"As if you hardly know me at all," Eclipse said quietly. He straightened his mask, his fingers resting slightly longer on a damaged part where Adam had shot him. He tapped his mask a few times, then lowered his hands, clasping them behind his back. "I have never once toppled my king before checkmate, Aizawa."

Tension rose. Aizawa and Eclipse stared across the room at each other. 

"What's going on?" Rose cried, growing increasingly frustrated. 

"Ruby!" Wan called out. 

"Wan?" Ruby said, quietly. 

Wan began stomping forward. "We need to talk," Wan said. 

"Wan--I thought--what's going on?" Ruby called out, stepping forward. 

"Stay back," Eclipse repeated. 

"I am going to beat the shit out of you," Wan growled, pointing at Eclipse. 

Eclipse didn't answer. The Ice Queen started whispering into Rose's ear. Rose listened. 

No one moved. 

Death Arms rushed forward, apparently done with the waiting. He raised a fist as he charged straight for Eclipse. Eclipse didn't move. Death Arms instincts screamed at him, and he aborted his charge and stepped backwards just as the scarves lashed out. If he had taken one more step, the scarves would have struck him. Backing up, he raised his fists. Eclipse's scarves retreated back. 

"I honestly don't know why you even bother," he said. "Launching attacks that you know are doomed from the start."

Wan rushed forward, crying out in rage. Eclipse stretched out one hand, and several lights lit up along his arm. As Wan swung a fist, he stepped aside and punched her. The shockwave that spread out sent all the armed thugs staggering backwards as Wan hurtled across the room, bowling over Death Arms. 

"What was it that kid said?" Eclipse asked. "'Detroit Smash'? Heh. A strong Quirk, that one, if rather bothersome to replicate."

Ruby felt that he was smiling under his mask. Hefting her sniper rifle, she said, "Eclipse, there's no reason to keep on doing this."

"Ah. So you say. But science rarely needs a reason."

"I don't believe for a second that you're doing this for science," Aizawa snarled. 

"Ah. So you haven't gotten as rusty as I thought you had," Eclipse said, a tint of humor in his voice. He looked around at the assembled heroes. "So who's going to come in next?" he asked. "You'll never get anywhere if you don't take your first step."

No one moved. There was tension in every one of them as Wan got up onto her feet, dusting herself off. 

"Ruby," Wan called out. 

"Wan--how are you talking again?" Rose replied. "I...I don't know what's going on..." She had drawn her sword. 

"The reason I couldn't talk is because Tai was a bastard who pumped me full of drugs and turned me into his personal lapdog," Wan snarled. 

"What? Dad?" Rose looked back and forth between Wan and Eclipse, looking panicked. "What...I..."

"I can explain," Eclipse began, turning to Rose. 

"Weiss! Get me out of here!" Rose cried. "I...need to think." The Ice Queen grabbed Rose, picked her up, and then rushed away on a white glyph. 

Eclipse had started to move, his hand partly raised. He went rigid, standing back, looking after his daughter. 

"Eclipse?" Roman asked, jumping off the raised platform and striding over to the cloaked figure. "Uh, we kinda need you, buddy."

Eclipse turned and looked at the heroes. "You're going to wish you hadn't done that," he hissed. His cloak fluttered, the scarves twitched. The light bulbs on the ceiling flickered on and off. "You're really going to regret that one."

Wan punched her fists together. "The only thing I regret is treating you like a nice guy," Wan told him. 

Paladin stepped away from Eclipse. "What did you do?" he demanded. 

"I will explain later," Eclipse replied without looking. 

"Then I will fight later," Paladin said, folding his arms over his chest. 

Eclipse looked at him. His hands had moved to his sides, where they were clenched into fists.

"Better start talking," Paladin told him. 

"I'd rather shoot myself," Eclipse muttered. He looked back to the heroes. "Still haven't made your move? Wanting me to go first, perhaps?"

Ruby leapt forward, slashing with her scythe. The scarves moved and intercepted, blocking the attack and striking back at Ruby. Yang and Wan jumped in, attacking. Eclipse disappeared and the two Yangs barreled through empty air before grating to a stop. Eclipse had reappeared behind them, and had turned to look at them. Death Arms jumped into the air behind him and swung down at Eclipse's head. Eclipse reached up and caught the fist with his glowing hand. With no noticeable effort, he slammed Death Arms into the ground in front of him. Stepping over the hero, he said to Wan, "You know, I didn't particularly like what I had to do."

Wan glared at him. "Oh, really?"

"Checkmate!" Ruby cried. Weiss and Blake leapt in, attacking Eclipse. Eclipse stretched out one hand, barely turning to look at them, and their swords were pushed away. As they were still holding their swords, they were thrown back as well. Vines sped towards Eclipse, as Kamui Woods stepped forward. Eclipse stretched out both of his arms, and froze the vines. They shattered, ice shards flying everywhere. Then a bullet hit Eclipse's mask, in the same damaged spot as before. Snipe didn't stop, though, and continued discharging both guns at Eclipse. The scarves blocked the rest of the bullets. Eclipse's hands clutched his mask. "Stop doing that," he hissed. 

"Oh, so you like that thing, eh?" Snipe laughed. "Well then. Aim for his mask!"

"Roman!" Eclipse snarled. "Get over here!"

"Don't," Cinder overrided. Eclipse turned on her, still holding the mask over his face. "What?"

"I said, don't," Cinder confirmed. 

Roman scratched his head, but stepped aside, cane lowered. "If you say so," he said slowly. "Back up a bit," he told his men. 

"Uh, Cinder?" Fang called out. "We could use the extra help here, buddy." She used her Quirk to evade Adam's attack, landing over by Eclipse. 

Cinder took a deep breath. "We've got better things to do. Paladin, send us home."

"As you wish." A red-and-black portal opened up, with a strange eye symbol directly in the center of it. 

"We're going home, then?" Roman asked. "Okay. Until next time, heroes, Huntsmen, Ice Queen." With a deep, mocking bow, he stepped through the portal with the rest of his men. Cinder shared one last look with Emerald, then went through the portal with Mercury. 

Immediately the lights began dimming, but turned back on just as quickly. "Get him!" Aizawa cried. 

With a cry of frustration, Eclipse backed away from the advancing heroes, his scarves attacking. He'd forgotten, however, Yang and Wan, and the former rushed forward and punched him in the face. The mask flung across the room, hitting the ground and cracking. Adam slammed his boot onto it, twisting it completely out of shape. 

"Right in the kisser, ya big..." Yang stopped. Eclipse turned to look at her. 

There was nothing beneath the mask. Just a few blinking lights and some wires. No face. No head. 

"Okay," Yang said with a gulp, backing away. 

"You died quite a while ago, didn't you?" Aizawa asked, picking up the crushed mask. 

"True. This machine body I created can only mimic me so much, in any case." He straightened, hands behind his back. He looked at Aizawa. 

"Why?" Aizawa demanded. 

"She needed to be ready," Eclipse told him. "It was the only way I could make Ruby ready."

"Do you think she wanted what you did to Wan?" Aizawa asked. 

"No," Eclipse said after a moment. 

Then Aizawa blinked. Immediately the light bulbs exploded, and the room was plunged into darkness. 

"Get him!"

"Before he teleports!"

"Ow! Who punched me?"

"Did anyone bring a God-damn flashlight?"

Paladin's voice laughed. Then, another portal appeared, lighting up the room. Paladin gestured to it. "If you wished to return home, " he said, "I'd do it now, if I were you."

"Just like that?" Yang asked, suspicious. 

"I was headed there myself," Paladin said. "And I do not feel the need to kill you at this moment in time."

"As good a compliment as any, I guess," Weiss said. "Goodbye!" she called out, waving to the heroes. The two teams of Huntsmen stood by the portal, with Emerald, as well. 

"Goodbye!" Ruby called out. "If we meet again, I hope its under better circumstances!"

Then they left. "Paladin..." Aizawa began, but Paladin waved his hand, and the portal flickered a moment. "Adam Taurus, if you and your Faunus wished to go home, do so now."

Adam glared at him suspiciously, then went through the portal with the rest of the White Fang. 

The portal flickered once more, and Paladin himself stepped through and disappeared with the portal. 

"Uh..." Fang looked around the room. "I'll, just, uh..." She dropped her sword, fell to her knees, and put her hands on her head. "...surrender now," she finished quietly. 

"So they went home?" Toshinori asked. 

"All of them," Aizawa affirmed. "Even the terrorists, though I'm reasonably certain that Adam Taurus might pose less of a threat."

"But we didn't get all of the answers we wanted," Wan said. "Like why Paladin suddenly sided with the immortal demon queen."

"This Salem person sounds quite deadly. And I don't think he's done working with her," Snipe said. "So we can probably expect future attacks from her."

"We won this time, though, right?" Midnight said. "And Salem's limited in travel by Paladin. If he goes down, she can't send troops after us."

"I think our two worlds can be accessed in other ways," Wan said. "I...have Aura, from their world. And part of it is Ruby's. So Tai did something to our souls. I don't like that."

"Neither does anyone else here," Firecracker agreed. "But before we get any further, I'd like to note that in a separate part of the city, someone's car broke. Apparently, the owner opened it and the door just popped off. As well as the car bending under his weight when he leaned on it. It sounds like Atrophy leeched some poor shmuck's car."

"So he is active," Toshinori concluded. "Wherever he is, he's definitely planning something."

The door to the coffee shop rang a bell as Atrophy pushed it open. He sniffed the air, taking in the scents of pastries and coffee, then stretched his hands out in front of him. Two hands of flesh and blood. He wriggled his fingers and grinned. 


End file.
